April 5, 2005

Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score

Indiana, Pa. - The sixth-ranked Rock pounded out 31 hits, including 12 extra-base knocks (four home runs, eight doubles) Tuesday en route to a 13-4, 14-7 doubleheader sweep of hosting Indiana U. of Pa. (7-7, 0-4) in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division action.

The wins extended The Rock's current win streak to seven games and improved its season record to 22-2 overall and 4-0 in PSAC-West action.

This year's won-lost record is the best ever recorded by an SRU baseball team in its first 24 games.

The Rock is ranked sixth in this week's National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America national poll and tied for seventh in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper national poll.

SRU, which is tied for the PSAC-West lead with California U. of Pa. (14-9, 4-0), is scheduled to return to action on Friday with a 1 p.m. doubleheader at Clarion, which has a 3-1 mark in PSAC-West this spring.

The Rock hit a pair of home runs and five doubles in Tuesday's first game, two home runs and three doubles in the second game, and never trailed during the 14 innings of action.

Matt Kozusko, Chase Rowe and Chris Tolliver each had a total of five hits in the game, while Todd Schickling had four hits.

Three of Rowe's hits were doubles, while Tolliver had a home run and a double, Kozusko had two doubles and Schickling had one double.

Kozusko and Tolliver each picked up five RBIs, Rowe had four RBIs and Schickling two RBIs.

First game

Brad Wilson got The Rock scoring parade started with an RBI single in the bottom of the first inning of Tuesday's first game.

Aaron Levonick hit the first HR of the day for The Rock, a solo shot, to key a three-run Rock outburst in the top of the second inning of the first game. The roundtripper was Levonick's first of the season.

The second and third runs of the inning came around to score on a double by Kozusko and The Rock held a 4-0 lead after two innings.

Dave Gonos then smacked his second HR of the season, a two-run blast in the third inning to highlight a seven-run Rock explosion that pushed the guests' advantage to 11-0.

Phil Butch got an RBI on a bases-loaded walk, Kozusko had an RBI single, Rowe doubled home a pair of runs and Tolliver had a sacrifice fly for the other highlights of The Rock's third inning.

Travis Trimbur's RBI single plated Kozusko, who had doubled, with The Rock's 12th run of the game in the fifth inning.

Trimbur also plated the final Rock run of the game with a fielder's choice in the seventh to push across Rowe, who had doubles.

Kozusko and Rowe had a pair of doubles each in the game.

Kozusko (3 RBIs) and Schickling each finished the game with three hits in four at bats, while Rowe (2 RBIs), Tolliver and J.D. Lowry were all 2-for-4.

Rock starting pitcher Nick Armstrong picked up the win, his third in four decisions this spring. He allowed two earned runs on five hits, struck out six and walked two in five innings of work.

Josh Rape allowed two earned runs on three hits, struck out one and walked one in the final two innings.

Second game

Tolliver's two-run home run (his third HR of the season) in the bottom of the first inning gave The Rock a lead it would not relinquish in the second game.

Billy Wolfe's first HR of the season, a two-run shot, keyed a six-run Rock uprising in the second inning that pushed the lead to 8-0.

Rowe lined a two-run single through the right side of the IUP infield, Butch blooped an RBI single down the left-field line and Tolliver hit a sacrifice fly to plate the other four Rock runs in the second frame.

IUP trimmed the margin to 8-2 on a two-run home run by Brendan Malone in the bottom of the third inning before The Rock responded with two tallies in each of the fifth and sixth frames to push the advantage to 12-2.

A two-run single by Kozusko plated the fifth-inning tallies, while Schickling brought home two runs with a single in the sixth.

IUP closed the gap to 12-7 with five runs in the bottom of the sixth, keyed by a pinch-hit grand slam home run by Anthon Rebyanski, before The Rock got its final two runs in the top of the seventh.

Tolliver doubled to plate the first Rock run in the seventh before Gonos plated the final run of the game with a sacrifice fly.

Tolliver (4 RBIs) and Rowe (2 RBIs) each had three hits for The Rock, while Butch, Kozusko, Wolfe and Schickling had two hits each.

Kozusko, Wolfe and Schickling each picked up a pair of RBIs.

Rowe, Tolliver and Matt Messer had a double each for SRU.

Rock starting pitcher Troy Wilson allowed two earned runs on five hits and struck out five in five innings en route to his third win in as many decisions this spring.

Trimbur pitched the sixth inning and allowed five unearned runs on two hits, struck out two and walked two.

Dan Herisko pitched the final inning and struck out one.

Link to updated cumulative statistics