The Youngstown State baseball team (3-17, 1-2 Horizon) visited Big East Conference foe Georgetown (15-10) for a three-game series at Capital One Park in Tysons, Virginia. The Penguins pulled off a win on Friday to open the series, but suffered back-to-back losses to the Hoyas to conclude the weekend.
Friday’s line:
Youngstown State (R-H-E-LOB): 3-9-2-4
Georgetown (R-H-E-LOB): 2-5-2-10
W: Braden Gebhardt (1-1)
L: Kai Leckszas (4-2)
S: Sloan Ulrich (1)
Georgetown broke its goose egg in the bottom of the fourth inning when Connor Price hit a leadoff double and raced home after Ashtin Gilio reached on an error from Youngstown State second baseman Alex Jang for the first run of the day.
The Hoyas scored another run in the home half of the fifth when Connor Peek reached on a fielder’s choice, advanced to second on a passed ball by Youngstown State catcher Teddy Ruffner, reached third on Jeremy Sheffield’s two-out infield hit and scored thanks to a YSU throwing error from shortstop Misael Uriepero to make it 2-0.
Youngstown State unexpectedly grabbed the lead in the top of the sixth inning with back-to-back singles from Nathan Beckley and Brayden Kuriger. Brady Shannon followed it up with his fourth home run of the season over the wall in center field to give YSU the 3-2 advantage and the eventual win.
Youngstown State starting pitcher Braden Gebhardt surrendered three hits and two unearned runs while fanning seven batters over six innings on the mound to earn his first win of the season. Tyler Heflin threw a scoreless seventh inning before Sloan Ulrich pitched the eighth and ninth frames to earn his first save of the year.
Kuriger recorded a game-high three hits, which included an RBI double. Nick Miscavage went 2-for-3 on the day with a pair of singles.
Georgetown starting pitcher Kai Leckszas (L, 4-2) suffered the defeat after he surrendered three runs on eight hits with six strikeouts over six quality innings.
Out of the bullpen, the trio of Andrew Citron, Max Whitmer and Luke Jackman combined to record five strikeouts and allowed just one hit over the final three innings for the Hoyas.
Sheffield recorded two of Georgetown’s five hits, but YSU still outhit the Hoyas 9-5.
Saturday’s line:
Youngstown State (R-H-E-LOB): 2-8-1-9
Georgetown (R-H-E-LOB): 7-11-1-8
W: Trajan Lee (3-2)
L: Jack Messmore (0-5)
The Hoyas drew first blood when AJ Solomon led off the second inning with a base hit. One out and three batters later, the bases were loaded before Solomon scored from third on an RBI single from Sheffield.
Georgetown didn’t stop there as Solomon led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a single. Braxton Templin reached on an error by Beckley at first base, and Travis Ilitch got hit by a pitch to load the bases with nobody out.
After Luke Zmolik took over for Jack Messmore on the mound for YSU, Connor Peek welcomed him to the nation’s capital with an RBI single to left for the first run of the frame. Sheffield drove in the second run of the rally with an RBI groundout to the mound before Christian Hamilton brought in Ilitch with a bunt single. Price followed it up with a sacrifice fly deep to left to bring in Peek. Hamilton then scored the last run of the frame on a two-out RBI double from Gilio.
As a result, Georgetown scored five runs in the fourth to make it a 6-0 game.
The Penguins avoided the shutout when Shannon led off the sixth inning with a double to right-center field and scored on Beckley’s RBI single up the middle.
The Hoyas got that run back in the bottom of the eighth inning when Peek hit a two-out double to left and scored on Sheffield’s RBI single to center to make it 7-1.
YSU’s second and last run was scored when James Carlson led off the top of the ninth with a leadoff triple to center field and scored on Uriepero’s RBI groundout to first to close out the scoring.
Messmore, YSU’s starting pitcher for Saturday, surrendered four runs on six hits with two strikeouts and two walks over three innings to remain winless on the year. Zmolik inherited two runs on three hits with three punchouts over two innings of relief. Kale Wemer allowed two hits and a run with a pair of punchouts while pitching a career-high three innings on the mound.
Georgetown starting pitcher Trajan Lee allowed just one run on five hits with four strikeouts and three walks through five innings to earn the victory. Jack Volo, Griffin O’Connor and Ethan Rucker each threw a scoreless inning of relief before Marshall Whitmer surrendered one run in the ninth.
Peek and Sheffield each got three hits, Sheffield had a game-high three RBIs and Peek doubled twice and scored twice.
Sunday’s line
Youngstown State (R-H-E-LOB): 3-5-3-8
Georgetown (R-H-E-LOB): 6-10-1-11
W: Spencer Seid (5-1)
L: Brandon Mikos (0-4)
S: Luke Jackman (6)
In Sunday’s rubber match, YSU drew first blood on a one-out solo bomb from Beckley in the very first inning, which was just his second dinger of the year.
However, the Hoyas answered back in the bottom of the third inning when Peek hit a one-out single through the right side, went to second on a balk, reached third on a wild pitch, and on Sheffield’s RBI single through the left side to knot it up at 1-1.
Georgetown wasn’t finished yet as Solomon led off the fourth inning with a single up the middle and advanced to second on Templin’s sacrifice bunt to the mound. One out later, Solomon scored on a two-out RBI single from Peek to give the Hoyas the 2-1 advantage.
Later on in the sixth, the bleeding continued when Solomon hit another leadoff single to left, moved to second on another sacrifice bunt to the mound by Templin, advanced to third on a single to center from Ilitch, and scored on Peek’s RBI groundout to third to make it 3-1. Then, Sheffield followed it up by bringing home Ilitch from second with a two-out run-scoring base hit to center field, which made it 4-1.
Jang cut the Hoyas’ lead in half with a two-out solo home run in the top of the seventh inning, his second of the season, to make it a 4-2 deficit.
The Hoyas got that run back and then some when Price drew a leadoff walk to start the bottom of the seventh, advanced to second on a passed ball from Ruffner, and scored on Solomon’s two-out RBI double to right center to make it 5-2. A pitching change was made for YSU as Griffin Almond left in favor of Jake Ferretti, who walked Templin on four pitches and committed a balk during Solomon’s at-bat to put both runners in scoring. Solomon then raced home to score on a throwing error from Ferretti to make it 6-2 in favor of the home team.
YSU added one more run in the ninth inning on a one-out RBI single from Garrett Cutting, making it 6-3 to close out the scoring.
YSU starting pitcher Mikey Rodriques struck out two batters in as many walks over two no-hit innings in his fourth start of 2026. Brandon Mikos allowed four runs on nine hits over four innings of relief to suffer the loss. Almond gave up two runs — one earned — while recording two outs in the seventh inning.
The pitching for the Penguins continued, as Ferretti walked a pair of hitters and didn’t record an out. Aidan English struck out one batter while tossing the final inning and a third.
Georgetown starting pitcher Spencer Seid allowed one run on two hits with four walks and eight strikeouts over six solid innings to earn his fifth win of the season. Max Whitmer gave up the home run to Jang in the seventh, while Ethan Rucker struck out a pair of hitters while tossing a perfect eighth inning. Andrew Jergins got one out in the ninth before giving up a run on two hits before Luke Jackman came in to record the final two outs and collect his sixth save of the season, which ties him for second in the country.
Solomon went 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI and three runs scored. Peek and Sheffield each recorded two hits and two RBIs.
The Penguins will begin a five-game stretch today with a midweek non-conference contest at Eastern Michigan for a 3 p.m. first pitch at Oestrike Stadium in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Like James Moon’s work? Support his work via CashApp: @$JRMoon91
Enjoyed this article? Help keep HoriZone Roundtable going.
👉 Donate here: https://horizoneroundtable.com/donate
👉 Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/horizoneroundtable
Subscribe to our emails, and get our latest posts in your inbox, plus a weekly digest of everything we've published!
