April 28, 2007

Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
PSAC tournament information

Shippensburg, Pa. - Chris Squeglia tossed a two-hit shutout in Game 1 of Saturday's doubleheader to lead The Rock to a 2-0, 5-2 sweep of hosting Shippensburg in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division action.

The sweep in the regular-season finales moved SRU (31-13, 14-6) into temporary possession of first place in the PSAC-West standings.

The Rock, which closed out its regular-season schedule with nine wins in its final 10 games, holds a one-half game lead over California U. of Pa.

California plays a Sunday twinbill at Lock Haven. One win by the Vulcans gives them a share of the PSAC-West title, two wins gives California sole possession of the crown.

Shippensburg (23-21, 13-7) is assured of a third-place finish in this year's PSAC-West race and will join SRU and California as the division's representatives in the conference tournament.

The Rock will host the conference tournament at Jack Critchfield Park, which starts Wednesday and runs through next Saturday.

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

California will play a yet-to-be-determined opponent in the second and final opening-day game, while Shippensburg will take on PSAC-East champion Kutztown (41-3) at 9 a.m. on Thursday.

Game 1: The Rock 2, Shippensburg 0

Squeglia and Shippensburg's Ross Buckwalter locked horns in a masterful pitching duel in Game 1, which featured five full innings of scoreless baseball.

The Rock finally broke the scoreless tie with a run in the top of the sixth inning and added an insurance tally in the seventh.

Phil Butch got a leadoff walk to start the sixth-inning rally, moved to second base on Billy Herman's bunt single, advanced to third on a single by Dan Hudeck to right center and scored on M.J. Parsons' bases-loaded fielder's choice.

Jacob Oswalt beat out an infield single to start The Rock's seventh-inning rally and moved to second on Billy Messer's sacrifice bunt before trotting home of Butch's single through the left side of the infield.

Shippensburg threatened to score in its first at-bat, as it got a leadoff single by Tyler Redick, who promptly stole second base. But Squeglia induced a popup and two ground outs to work out of that jam.

The Red Raiders had a runner on second base with one out in the third inning, only to see him stranded by a flyout and a popup.

Justin Garber's leadoff single in the fourth frame proved to be the final hit of the game for Shippensburg and, when he stole second base, the hosts were again knocking at the door with no one out. Two strikeouts and a flyout left Garber stranded at second base, though.

Squeglia closed out his first complete-game effort of the season by retiring the Red Raiders in order in each of the last three innings. He finished the game with six strikeouts and only one walk and improved his record to 2-5.

Game 2: The Rock 5, Shippensburg 2

As Yogi Berra would say, "It was deja vu all over again" in Game 2 as Rock starter Rich Hocanson and Shippensburg's Frank D'Agostino dueled for four scoreless innings.

SRU broke the goose egg with a run in the top of the fifth in much the same way it scored its first run in Game 1. Oswalt got a leadoff walk, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Jim Eimiller, went to third on a single by Billy Messer and scored on a fielder's choice ground out by Rich Michalek.

Shippensburg tied the score at 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth before The Rock put three runs on the scoreboard in the sixth.

Herman opened The Rock sixth with a single to left center and moved to second on a walk to Matt Adams. Hudeck laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners into scoring position and Parsons singled to left center to bring both runners home. Parsons then stole second base and scored on an RBI single to center by Messer.

The Rock added an insurance run in the seventh to make it a 5-1 game. Butch walked, stole second, moved to third on a ground out by Herman and scored on a sacrifice fly by Adams.

Shippensburg got its second and final run of the game and day with two outs in the bottom of the seventh on a single and triple back-to-back off Rock reliever Mike DeCola.

Hocanson picked up the win and improved his record to 5-0 as he allowed one earned run on five hits, struck out four and walked three in six innings. DeCola yielded one earned run on two hits in the final inning.

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