BUTLER, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team's time at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Tournament came to an end Friday with an 11-2 loss to No. 11 Mercyhurst University at Kelly Automotive Field.
 
The loss was the second for SRU in the double elimination tournament. Slippery Rock will now wait to see if its 30-18 record, which includes six victories over the top four teams in the latest NCAA Division II regional rankings, is deemed good enough to for an NCAA Tournament bid.
 
The top six teams in the final regional rankings, which will be released May 10, qualify for the national tournament. Slippery Rock began the week ranked seventh in the region, but its earlier PSAC Tournament victory against West Chester, its third versus the Rams in 2015, may be enough to earn SRU a tournament berth.
 
Slippery Rock totaled six hits on the afternoon. Kyle Vozar hit his fourth home run of the season and Ty Zimmerman laced an RBI-double to lead The Rock's offensive efforts. Alex Bell, Logan Brown, Matt Mandes and Jack Graham all had singles as well for Slippery Rock.
 
Adam Urbania's hitting streak ended Friday at 34 games, the 11th longest in NCAA Division II history.
 
Preston Falascino (3-2) started the game for Slippery Rock and was solid after a shaky first inning despite an unfortunate stat line of eight runs on 10 hits in 3.2 innings. Jon Anderson and James Divosevic combined to throw the final 5.1 innings for The Rock.
 
Slippery Rock could never fully overcome a four-run first inning by Mercyhurst. SRU chipped away at the lead starting in the third inning when Mandes singled and was promptly brought home on an RBI-double by Zimmerman for what were SRU's first two hits of the game off of Laker pitcher Colin Mckee.
 
Falascino settled down following the rough start to throw 2.2 scoreless innings to keep the game within reach for Slippery Rock, but a Rock fielding miscue on an attempted double play in the fourth inning that would have gotten The Rock out of the inning instead kept the frame alive and eventually led to four Laker runs to extend SRU's deficit to 8-1.
 
Vozar hit a leadoff homer in the fifth inning, but Mercyhurst put any thoughts of comeback to rest by adding an unearned run in the fifth and two more runs on a Hank Morrison homer in the sixth on the way to its nine-run victory.
 
McKee (6-1) struck out 12 batters in a complete-game effort. Morrison finished the game 3-for-4 with four RBI and one home run for the Lakers. Mercyhurst (34-7) continues tournament competition Friday afternoon against Millersville University a matchup of the top seeds out of the PSAC-West and PSAC-East.