Baseball Finishes Season Against YSU & Kent St.

May 17 | Baseball

Game Notes (PDF)

Akron (14-35, 6-18) at Youngstown St. (12-35, 7-13)

Wednesday, May 18, 2011 | 11:00 a.m.
Jon Pusateri (R) (2-3, 4.26) vs. Blake Aquadro (L) (0-7, 8.35)

Venue: Eastwood Stadium

Radio: 1350 WARF - Nick VanDemark (play-by-play)

Webcast: GoZips.com - Nick VanDemark (color commentary)

Live Stats: GoZips.com - Live Stats are free of charge.

Akron (14-35, 6-18) at Kent State (37-13, 19-4)

Thursday, May 19, 2011 | 6:35 p.m.
Diamond Classic for the Kids @ Canal Park

Friday, May 20, 2011 | 3:00 p.m.

Saturday, May 21, 2011 | 1:00 p.m.

Venue: Canal Park - Thursday
Olga Mural Field - Friday & Saturday

Radio: 1350 WARF - Bill Morgan (play-by-play) Nick VanDemark (color commentary)

Webcast: GoZips.com - Bill Morgan (play-by-play) Nick VanDemark (color commentary)

Live Stats: GoZips.com - Live Stats are free of charge.

Looking Back...

Akron took 1-of-3 on the road at Ohio this past weekend, winning the opener in a 13-3 rout before dropping game 2, 7-3, and game 3, 1-0.
Sam Watkins had an excellent first two games, homering and doubling twice in the opener on Friday and homering again in Saturday's game. Drew Turocy hit a three run homer and Freshman Kurt Gamby hit a pinch hit grand slam in the Friday opener.
Andrew Brown collected his 4th win of the season in Friday's win, allowing two earned runs in 7.0 innings of work.
Myles McVeigh was the hard luck loser in the series finale throwing 6.0-innings and allowing just one run - a solo home run.

A Look at the Penguins...

Youngstown State enters Wednesday morning's game with a record of 12-35 and 7-13 in the Horizon League.
Neil Schroth leads the the club with a .297 average. Jeremy Banks and Joe Iacobucci have each driven in 19 runs. YSU hits .237 has a team.
The Penguins pitching staff has a combined ERA of 6.51. Erik Okleson (0-2, 8.67) has appeared in a club-high 18 games this season. Blake Aquadro will get the start on the mound.
The Zips shutout the Penguins 5-0 on 4/5 and hold a 91-61 advantage in the all-time series.

A Look at the Golden Flashes...

Kent State - ranked #28 in the country by Collegiate Baseball - is 37-13 this season and 19-4 in MAC play.
Ben Klafczynski (.378, 43 RBIs) leads the KSU offense. Travis Shaw (46 RBIs, 13 HRs) is 1 of 3 other KSU hitters with over 40 RBIs this season.
Andrew Chafin (6-1, 2.14), Kyle Hallock (9-4, 1.74), and David Starn (7-2, 1.81) lead a solid pitching staff that also includes closer Kyle McMillen (1.80, 15 svs).
The first game of the series will be the 5th Annual Diamond Classic for the Kids at Canal Park. Friday and Saturday's games will be at Olga Mural Field on the KSU campus.

Diamond Classic for the Kids...

For the 5th straight year, Akron and rival Kent State will participate in the Diamond Classic for the Kids on Thursday at Canal Park in downtown Akron.
All proceeds from the game will benefit the Akron Children's Hospital.
This year's game features inflatables, face painting, and a ceremonial first pitch by members of the hospital's Miracle Kids Program. Additionally, Miss Ohio is scheduled to sing the national Anthem.

Schedule Change...

The start time for Friday's game at Kent State has been moved to 3:00 p.m. The game was originally scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. start.
Saturday's game will still begin at 1:00 p.m.

Senior Day...

Prior to Thursday's Diamond Classic for the Kids game, 5 Akron seniors will be honored.
Lawrence Penn, Bobby Simone, Brandon White, Benjamin Danziger, and Kevin Kumazec will all be playing in their final games as members of the Akron baseball program this weekend.

Strikeout Machine...

Junior closer Chris Bassitt continues to dominate out of the Akron bullpen. The right-hander has picked up 7 saves in 7 opportunities and appeared in 19 non-save opportunities. His 14 career saves rank him second all-time in Akron history in the statistic.
Bassitt picked up wins in consecutive outings - 1.1 inning relief efforts against Bowling Green and West Virginia. The victories were the first two wins of his season.
Over 33.1 IP, the Curtice, Ohio native has struck out 43 - compared to just 14 walks. Bassitt has gone 17 appearances without allowing an earned run (24.2 IP).
The hard-throwing righty has an ERA of 1.35 this season and is limiting batters to an average of just .184. He has not allowed an earned run in 11 conference appearances, - striking out 22 in 18.1 IP.
Bassitt picked up a 7-out save in the 5/1 win over Buffalo, striking out 5 of the 8 batters he faced. He allowed 1 hit - an infield single.
Bassitt was named the MAC East Pitcher of the Week after picking a pair of saves in Akron's two wins at Eastern Michigan. Bassitt struck out the side with 13 pitches in Friday's win and then picked up a 6-out save, striking out 4 in Saturday's victory. Record-Breaking Danziger...
With his relief appearance in the 5/7 win over Bowling Green, senior Benjamin Danziger broke the UA career record for pitching appearances. The record was previously held by Patrick Gliha at 73. Danziger has now appeared in 77 games in his Akron career.
Danziger has been lights out during the last month, making 11 appearances and allowing just 2 earned runs in 20.2 innings. He has picked up a pair of victories and struck out 21 during that span.
Danziger picked up his 2nd win of the season on 5/1 at Buffalo, allowing 1 run on 1 hit in 2.1 innings of relief.
On 4/16, Danziger picked up his 1st win of the season, throwing 5.0 scoreless innings out of the bullpen and striking out 8 in Akron's 14-7 win over Eastern Michigan.
In MAC play, Danziger is 2-0 with a 3.20 ERA in 9 appearances. He is holding conference hitters to a .282 average and has 22 K's in 19.2 IP.

Second Half Surge...

Sophomore INF/DH Samuel Trecaso has been swinging an excellent bat during the last month. Beginning with the 4/15 win at Eastern Michigan, Trecaso is batting .404 with 8 RBIs.
Trecaso has 3 doubles, 2 triples, and a home run during the stretch for a slugging percentage of .596.
Sam Watkins is hitting .349 with 2 homers in during that span, while Drew Turocy has driven in a team-best 14 RBIs with 4 longballs in the season's final month.
The Zips are 8-10 overall and 6-9 in MAC play since grabbing their first conference win at EMU on 4/15.

Dependable Brown...

Junior starter Andrew Brown can be counted on to go deep into the game, having thrown 8.0-plus innings in 5 of 7 conference starts (non-rain shortened).
The right-hander picked up his 4th win of the season on Friday at Ohio, a 7.0-inning effort in which he allowed just 2 earned runs on 5 hits with 7 strikeouts
Brown was lights out for 3 straight starts (4/1, 4/9, 4/15) and had pitched 19.0 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run until Eastern Michigan scored in the first inning on 4/15.
Brown picked up the win in the 4/15 game at EMU, allowing just 2 runs over 8.0 innings and striking out 6.
Brown pitched 10.0 innings of shutout ball against Toledo on 4/1 and then allowed 3 unearned runs in game 1 against Central Michigan on 4/9.
Against North Dakota State on 3/16, Brown through a five-hit complete-game shutout to lead the Zips to a 1-0 win over the Bison. Brown needed just 104 pitches in the outing, Brown was named Mid-American Conference East Pitcher of the Week on 3/21 for his efforts.
Brown is 4-6 over 12 starts and holds an ERA of 2.92 in a MAC-high 95.2.0 IP. Opposing batters are hitting just .223 against the right-hander.

Crushing Corpora...

Freshman Matt Corpora homered twice during the BGSU series, with both homers coming in the bottom of the ninth inning.
On 5/6, Corpora hit a solo shot that pulled the Zips to within 1 run of the lead.
He followed that with a walk-off 3-run dinger in the 5/7 game that gave Akron a thrilling 7-6 win.
Corpora also hit a game-winning homer during the club's Florida spring break trip, going yard in the top of the ninth to propel the Zips to a 1-0 win over North Dakota State on 3/16. The Long Ball...
Akron found the home run ball during last weekend's series at Ohio, going yard 4 times in the 3-game series.
On Friday, Sam Watkins hit a solo shot, Drew Turocy hit a 3-run bomb, and Kurt Gamby hit a pinch hit grand slam.
Watkins then hit another solo shot in Saturday's contest.
Akron has hit 19 home runs this season, with Turocy's 7 round-trippers leading the way. The Zips have allowed just 18 home runs.

Record Watch...

With 21 appearances this year, senior Benjamin Danziger has moved into sole possession of first on Akron's all-time appearance list. His 77 appearances have surpassed Patrick Gliha who held the record with 73 appearances from 2004-07. Senior Kevin Kumazec is 7th on the list with 59 appearances.
Danziger has also moved into 5th on the career innings pitched list with 258.0. Tom Farmer is 4th with 264.0 IP. Andrew Brown is 6th on the career innings pitched list with 254.2 and is 3rd on the season inning's pitched list with 95.2. Brown is 8th on the career strikeout list with 183.
Junior Drew Turocy's career batting average entering the season of .343 ties him for ninth on the all-time list. Turocy is also 4th on the career triples list with 12.
Junior Chris Bassitt is second on the career saves list with 14. Darek Stanfield is the record-holder with 26. Bassitt's 7 saves his redshirt freshman season and his 7 this season are third on the season saves list.