BUTLER, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team opened the 2015 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Tournament with a 9-8 victory against West Chester University Wednesday afternoon at Kelly Automotive Field.
Slippery Rock overcame an early 4-2 deficit thanks in part to six runs over the sixth and seventh innings en route to the victory. The win improves Slippery Rock's record to 30-16 on the season. SRU has now defeated West Chester (26-12), which was slotted second in the first NCAA Division II Atlantic Region rankings, three times in 2015.
Eight players totaled 11 hits for Slippery Rock.
Preston Falascino led the way via a 3-for-5, one-run, one-RBI performance.
Kyle Vozar had The Rock's other multi-hit effort, going 2-for-5 with two doubles and two RBI.
Jake Nogalo and
Tyler Walters, the reigning PSAC-West Freshman of the Year, both hit home runs.
Adam Urbania drove in a pair of runs and extended his hitting streak to 33 games, the 14th longest in NCAA Division II history. Walters' home run was his team-leading 13th of the season.
Starting pitcher
Ryan Oglesby improved to 5-3 on the year after allowing seven runs on 10 hits and striking out five over 6.2 innings. Oglesby was dominant for the majority of the day as WCU only got to him two times in the fourth and seventh innings.
Jon Anderson came on in relief of Oglesby in the in the seventh and proceeded to hold the Rams to one run in the final 2.1 innings for the save.
After a scoreless first inning, West Chester had the first real opportunity of the game to score a run with back-to-back hits to lead off the second inning. However, Oglesby pitched out of the jam by striking out three straight batters to keep it a 0-0 contest through two innings.
Walters gave The Rock an early lead when he slugged a solo home run over the left field wall in the third inning. Slippery Rock continued to supply Oglesby with run support in the fourth inning when
Logan Brown, who singled to lead off the inning, was plated on an RBI-double by Falascino. Brown's hit extended his hitting streak to 11 games.
Fielding miscues in the form of two errors led to four runs by West Chester in the bottom of the fourth. Slippery Rock began cutting into its deficit in the fifth off of a home run by Nogalo to the opposite field to make it a 4-3 contest midway through the game.
Slippery Rock continued the rally in the sixth with two more runs. Following a Brown walk, Vozar sailed a run-scoring double to right field before being promptly brought home by a
Jordan Faretta single. SRU finished off the rally on a two-runs single off the bat of Urbania, that improved his hitting streak to 33 games and gave The Rock a 7-4 lead.
Vozar and
Ty Zimmerman provided The Rock with crucial insurance runs in the seventh off of back-to-back run scoring hits to push SRU's lead to five runs with three innings to play.
West Chester battled back with three runs in the seventh on a three-run triple by Joey Coyle as well as a Bill Ford solo home run with one out in the ninth inning, but Anderson recorded two outs to strand the tying run on first to give Slippery Rock a one-run win.
Slippery Rock has now won 30 games in a season 17 times under head coach
Jeff Messer. Wednesday's win was SRU's first PSAC Tournament victory since 2012.
Slippery Rock continues PSAC Tournament play Thursday at 3:30 p.m. against East Stroudsburg. Both teams are 1-0 in the double elimination tournament.
