April 12, 2005

Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score

Johnstown, Pa. - The Rock turned a triple play in the bottom of the third inning of the first game of Tuesday's non-conference doubleheader at Pitt-Johnstown en route to a 6-2 win, but could not generate any offense in the second game and fell by a 5-0 margin.

The split gives The Rock a 23-8 overall record as it heads into Friday's Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division doubleheader vs. Shippensburg (1 p.m. at Jack Critchfield Park).

The Rock, after being ranked sixth and seventh in the two NCAA Division II national polls a week ago, has now lost six of its last eight games.

The skid caused SRU to fall to 13th in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America poll and to among the teams that received votes in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll.

UP-J (19-9) had scored one run in the inning to take a 2-0 lead and was threatening to do more damage with runners on first and third bases with no outs in the third inning in Monday's first game when The Rock pulled off an around-the-horn triple play.

Rock starting and winning pitcher Dan Herisko induced Paul Pentz into a ground ball to SRU third baseman Todd Schickling, who fired to second baseman Chase Rowe for the first out. Rowe then pivoted and fired a strike to first baseman Chris Tolliver for the double play, and Tolliver in turn pivoted and fired to home to catcher Brad Wilson to complete the once-in-a-lifetime triple play.

The defensive gem eventually jump-started a stagnant Rock offense and was the turning point of the game.

The Rock, which had only two hits in the first three innings, manufactured a run in the top of the fourth inning to trim the deficit to 2-1. A pair of UP-J errors and a sacrifice fly by Tolliver brought home The Rock's first run.

SRU then evened the score at 2-2 with a run in the fifth. J.D. Lowry led off the inning with a single, went to second on a balk, moved to third on a ground out by Matt Kozusko and scored on Brad Wilson's two-out single.

The score remained tied until the top of the seventh, when The Rock scored four times to secure the win.

Tolliver doubled home what proved to be the winning run, Schickling followed with a two-run double and Billy Wolfe closed out the scoring with an RBI single.

As has been the rule rather than the exception for The Rock this spring, all three of SRU's run-scoring hits in the seventh came after two outs had been recorded.

In the end, four of The Rock's five runs in the game scored with two outs already recorded.

UP-J had the leadoff batter on base in the bottom of the seventh before Herisko induced a fly out and a double-play ground ball to slam the door on the Mountain Cats' comeback bid.

Herisko, normally The Rock's closer, pitched a complete game in his first start of the season. He allowed two earned runs on seven hits, struck out four and walked four and improved his season record to 2-1.

Wolfe had three hits and one RBI, Phil Butch had two hits and Schickling and Tolliver each picked up two RBIs to lead The Rock offensive attack.

SRU had 10 hits in the game, eight of which came in the final four frames. Schickling, Tolliver and Wolfe had a double each to account for the only Rock extra-base hits.

The Rock was held to only three hits in the second game -- back-to-back singles by Butch and Schickling to open the game and a one-out double by Kozusko in the fourth -- and had only one runner reach third base (with two outs in the third inning).

Josh Rape was The Rock starting and suffered a loss in his first decision of the season. Rape allowed five earned runs on nine hits, struck out one and walked one in five innings of work.

David Musher pitched the sixth inning, allowed one hit and walked one.