POLAND, Ohio (WKBN) – Poland baseball fans know the name O’Shaughnessy quite well.

Padraig and younger brother Braeden made their mark in high school with the Bulldogs and are now playing together for their hometown YSU Penguins. They’ve been working out together from home in their personal batting cage.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Padraig said. “Obviously, everything has its ups and downs but for the most part it’s nice to have family playing with you and playing against you all the time.”

“We’ve always been pretty close,” Braeden said. “But I think since we started playing together in high school and now into college, I think it’s brought us a lot closer and closer over the years.”

Braeden was a freshman infielder this year, while Padraig was a redshirt sophomore, transferring in from Mercyhurst North East.

Both saw plenty of action in 14 games before the pandemic canceled the remainder of the season. Now, the two are staying competitive in their backyard.

“When we’re in the cage, we’ll usually play horse or pig,” Padraig said. “We’re hitting off the tee and aiming for a certain spot trying to hit it, anything to get a little competitive edge on each other, and the same thing goes for lifting.”

“People that are doing the work now is going to separate from the people that aren’t doing the work because baseball is repetition, repetition, repetition,” Braeden said.

Both are accomplished hitters, but which one is winning more of these competitions?

“Oh, pretty even,” Padraig said. “We’ve won a couple but recently [Braeden] started winning a couple more in the cage. So it’s been pretty good, it’s pretty even right now.”

The competitive O’Shaughnessy brothers will still have three years left to play together at YSU. Their goal is to continue to make their mark on the program.

“We live in Youngstown so we’re the hometown kids and I think we’ve brought our drive and our motivation to the other guys,” Braeden said. “I think we’ve started something pretty cool at YSU and I think it’s going to be going on for a couple years to come.”

“It’s going to be awesome to be able to restart that whole season again and really see what we can accomplish this coming year,” Padraig said.