Slippery Rock University managed only four hits Thursday morning and dropped a 5-0 decision to 29th-ranked Millersville University in opening-round action of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Baseball Championships at Point Stadium.
The loss dropped The Rock (31-20 overall record) into Thurday's 2 p.m. elimination game vs. Western Division rival Gannon University.
Thursday afternoon's game will be the fifth meeting this season between the two teams. The Rock and Gannon settled for a 2-2 split in their four-game season series May 3-4.
With its win Thursday morning, Millersville (37-14), the Eastern Division regular-season champion and No. 1 team in the current NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional ranking, advanced to Thursday's 8 p.m. winners' bracket game vs. division rival East Stroudsburg University.
The Marauders' win over SRU gave Eastern Division teams a perfect 4-0 record in opening-round action against Western Division teams. East teams enjoyed a 24-6 scoring advantage in the first round.
The Rock never seriously threatened to score against Millersville ace Tim Mayza (10-3), who allowed only one runner to reach second base en route to a complete-game pitching effort.
Mayza, who struck out six and walked one in nine innings, retired the first eight batters to face him before Rock senior second baseman
Matt Curtis received a base on balls with two outs in the top of the third inning.
Rock senior left fielder
Austin Benshadle ruined Mayza's no-hit bid with a one-out single to left-center in the top of the fifth, but was quickly erased when he was put out trying to stretch the hit into a double.
The second Rock hit was a two-out single by junior first baseman-catcher
Kevin Jovanovich in the top of the seventh.
Junior right fielder
Brandon Myers collected the third hit with a two-out, pinch-hit double in the eighth inning before senior designated hitter
John Shaffer's two-out single in the ninth accounted for the final Rock hit.
Junior right-hander
Lou Trivino was tagged with the loss and saw his season record fall to 7-5 after he allowed four earned runs on seven hits, struck out six and walked two in the first seven innings.
Unless The Rock record four consecutive wins to reach Saturday's conference championship game, Thursday's game was most likely Trivino's final appearance with The Rock.
If that's the case, Trivino, who is expected to be selected in June's amateur baseball draft and sign a professional contract, finished his three-year Rock career with a school-record 227 strikeouts, capped off with an SRU-best 92 K's this spring.
Junior right-hander
Anthony Naso relieved Trivino in Thursday's game and allowed one earned run on one hit, struck out two and walked two in two-thirds of an inning. Junior righty Zach Anderson pitched the final one-third of an inning.
Jeremy Musser was 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs to lead an eight-hit Millersville attack. Dan Johnson and Curt Seiders were each 2-for-3 for the Marauders.
Millersville scored one run in the bottom of the second inning, added three tallies in the seventh and finished off its effort with a run in the eighth.
