April 14, 2007

Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score

Slippery Rock, Pa. - Kayla Ray had a pair of game-winning hits and finished the day with four RBIs Saturday afternoon to help propel The Rock to a 3-1, 12-11 doubleheader sweep of visiting Edinboro in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division action.

Ray smacked a two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth inning to account for the eventual winning margin in Game 1, then hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth inning of Game 2 to bring home the winning tally in that contest.

Ray finished the day with four hits (two in each game) and four RBIs.

Her Game 1 home run was one of four roundtrippers hit by The Rock in Saturday's twinbill.

Stacey Rhoades hit her school-record 10th homer of the season in the bottom of the first inning of Game 2, Jessica Kortz uncorked a three-run shot in the second inning and Kim Weindel hit a solo shot in the third inning.

Rhoades, like Ray, finished the day with four hits and four RBIs. All of Rhoades' RBIs came during a 2-for-4 effort in Game 2.

Kortz had three hits on the day and collected three RBIs, while Courtney Vincent was 3-for-4 with three runs scored in Game 2.

As a team, The Rock collected 23 hits in Saturday's twinbill as it avenged a pair of shutout losses (5-0, 8-0) at Edinboro on March 20.

The wins also ended a modest four-game losing streak for the Green and White, evened The Rock's overall record at 16-16 and improved its PSAC-West mark to 3-7.

Edinboro fell to 10-16 overall, 3-5 in divisional play.

Courtney Conron (5-6) won a Game 1 pitching duel with Edinboro's Vanessa Rose as she allowed only one earned run on five hits, struck out three and walked two in her ninth complete-game effort of the season.

Rock head coach Vashion Johnson rolled the dice and brought Conron right back to start Game 2, but Edinboro was up to the challenge.

The Fighting Scots scored four runs on five hits in the top of the first inning to start the Game 2 hitting duel and force Johnson to go to his bullpen.

SRU answered back with two runs in the bottom of the first to trim the margin to 4-2 before Edinboro came right back to score three times in the top of the second and take a 7-2 lead.

The Rock, aided by Kortz's three-run HR, made short work of that deficit, though, as the hosts scored five times in the bottom of the second to knot the score at 7-7.

Each team scored a run in their third-inning at bat -- The Rock tally coming via Weindel's solo HR -- before Edinboro scored three times in the top of the fourth to take an 11-8 lead.

A no-out ground ball by Rhoades in the bottom of the fourth brought home SRU's ninth run of the game and trimmed the deficit to two runs.

Sheree Horvath, the fourth and final pitcher called upon by Johnson, retired Edinboro quietly in the top of the fifth and withstood a pair of hits in the sixth to set the stage for a game-winning, three-run Rock rally in the bottom of the sixth.

Amber Phillips got a one-out walk and Weindel singled before Danielle Abbarno's triple tied the score at 11-11. Ray then lifted a fly ball to right center field to allow Abbarno to sprint home as the winning run.

Horvath then retired Edinboro in order in the top of the seventh to secure the win, her third in six decisions this spring.

Horvath allowed only two hits and walked one in her three innings of work; Conron yielded four earned runs on five hits and struck out one in one inning; Lisa Getgen allowed three earned runs on two hits and walked one in one-third of an inning and Liz Pittman allowed four runs (two earned) on four hits in two and two-thirds innings.

SRU is idle until Tuesday's scheduled home doubleheader vs. Wheeling Jesuit (2 p.m.).

The Rock is then scheduled to meet PSAC-West rival Clarion in a pair of doubleheaders, Wednesday in Clarion and Friday in Slippery Rock, and host division foe California U. of Pa. in a twinbill next Saturday (April 21).