The YSU baseball team made the trip to Auburn University on February 13th to play its first series of the season.
In the past, the Penguins would play 4 games against the Tigers and fall short every time. YSU was not ready to play the ninth ranked team for the opening weekend. Although the ‘Guins didn’t get themselves a win, there was still some good that came out of those games to see how developed some players really are. Brady Shannon, a Mahoning Valley native had a hot bat the whole series. Shannon got himself 2 doubles, 3 singles and a home run during the series against Auburn and he’s showing pro scouts why he should be drafted after his final year at YSU.
The Penguins will struggle to win games in the beginning of the season, but once they start to get deeper into the season the wins will come easy.
“I’m confident in these games just being placement games so that we can fight even harder and some ball games,” says Head Coach Trevor Charpie.
Left-handed pitcher for the Penguins Branden Gebhardt had a great mound performance in game 2 against the Tigers which resulted in him getting his second “Horizon League Pitcher Of The Week” award. The tall lefty is dominant on the mound and takes control of the game and throws at his pace and his pace only. Gebhardt is a guy for YSU and will only get better as the season goes on. The Penguins next series is against Oregon, and Gebhardt is guaranteed a start in one of those games.
The Penguins have the abilities to compete on offense and defense; it’s just the matter of everything coming together to win games.
“We’re not a Big 10 or Pac 12 team; we’re coming from a small university trying to win games, and we will,” says Assistant Coach Rodney Lopez.
The Penguins’ program has had a losing record since 2014 when they won the Horizon League conference championship. The program has so much real talent this year their fans don’t want it to go to waste. Even though the Penguins didn’t win against the Tigers, they still displayed competitiveness in the games. Freshman Alex Chang, who is a true freshman, took the plate for the Penguins a couple times against Auburn and he was ready to do whatever he had to for his new school and team to compete.
The 2026 Penguins roster holds great talent and spots will be given to whoever can continue to work the hardest.
“There’s a lot of room for these young guys to take older guys’ spots, it’s competitive and we need it,” says Lopez.
