April 27, 2007

Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
Cumulative statistics

Slippery Rock, Pa. - The Rock rode the two-hit pitch of senior right-hander Derek Blyzwick and a timely hitting attack to a 6-1 win in the first game of Friday's Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division doubleheader vs. Shippensburg.

In the process, the Green and White assured themselves of a top-three finish in this year's PSAC-West competition and a berth in next week's PSAC tournament.

The Rock (29-13 overall, 12-6 PSAC-W) will join Shippensburg (23-18, 13-5) and California U. of Pa. (29-13, 11-5) as the three PSAC-West representatives in the six-team tournament, which starts Wednesday at Jack Critchfield Park on the SRU campus.

SRU will play a yet-to-be-determined opponent in the opening game of the tournament at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

The Rock will be making its second straight appearance in the conference tournament and its 18th in Jeff Messer's 22 seasons as SRU's head coach.

The Rock and Shippensburg will close out their regular-season schedules with a 1 p.m. twinbill Saturday at Fairchild Field in Shippensburg.

Note: The Rock's home doubleheader vs. Salem International and the Slippery Rock Sliders' "Select Your Seat" event, both scheduled for Sunday, have been cancelled.

Game 1

The anticipated pitching duel between Blyzwick and Shippensburg ace Matt Wright, both of whom earned first-team All-PSAC-West honors a year ago, never materialized.

Blyzwick held the Red Raiders' attack in check throughout the game as he allowed one earned run, struck out two and walked two en route to his team-best fourth complete game of the season. Blyzwick now owns a 4-2 record this spring.

His teammates, meanwhile, pounded out 13 hits -- six of which went for extra bases -- in six innings against Wright, the 2006 PSAC-West "Rookie of the Year" award winner.

Wright (5-2) struck out eight, walked two and allowed six earned runs.

The Rock attack was led by Matt Adams and M.J. Parsons, who combined for five hits and five RBIs.

Adams was 3-for-4 with two double and two RBIs, while Parsons was 2-for-4 with a solo home run (his third circuit clout of the season) and three RBIs.

Scott Bender, Phil Butch and Billy Herman each added a pair of hits. Bender, Herman and Jim Eimiller each had a double in the game.

Travis Trimbur's RBI single in the second inning plated SRU's second run of the game and proved to be the game-winning hit.

The Rock wasted no time unleashing its offensive attack as Phil Butch led off the bottom of the first inning with a single to right field.

Butch was picked off first base, but Herman came right back with a double to right center and Adams lined a single up the middle to put SRU up 1-0.

A leadoff double by Eimiller, followed by Trimbur's RBI single and Adams' double to left field in the second inning pushed SRU's lead to 3-0.

Shippensburg got both of its hits and only run of the game in the top of third inning to make it a 3-1 game before The Rock answered with a run in the bottom of the third and two more tallies in the fourth.

Parsons led off the fourth with his home run to right field and came back the following inning with a two-run single through the right side of the infield to score Herman, who had singled, and Adams, who had doubled.

Blyzwick retired 10 straight batters between the third and seventh frames to make the lead stand up.

Game 2

The Rock continued its hitting demonstration in Game 2 as it pounded out 11 more hits, nine of which went for extra bases, but could not convert the effort into a victory.

Adams again led The Rock attack with a 3-for-4 game that included his third double of the day and his fourth home run of the season, a solo shot to lead off the third inning.

Eimiller added a pair of doubles and two RBIs to the cause, while Bender also had two doubles and Parsons, Dan Hudeck and Jacob Oswalt (RBI) had one double each.

Shippensburg scored three runs in each of its first two at-bats to bring a premature end to Rock starting and losing pitcher Mark Tanner's afternoon.

Tanner suffered his first loss of the season after four successive wins as he allowed six earned runs on four hits, struck out two, walked one and hit to batters in one and two-thirds innings.

Craig Misiewicz shut Shippensburg down over the final five and one-third innings as he allowed one earned run of six hits and struck out five. but the damage had been done.

Down 6-0, The Rock got two runs in the bottom of the second inning on doubles by Parsons, Eimiller and Oswalt.

Adams' leadoff home run in the third cut the deficit to 6-3 before doubles by Hudeck and Eimiller plated a run in the fifth to make it a 6-4 game.

The Rock had the potential tying run at the plate in the bottom of the seventh after Adams singled and Bender doubled, but Shippensburg reliever Brian Boylan was up to the challenge.

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