April 7, 2007

Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score

Lock Haven, pa. - Rich Hocanson pitched six no-hit, shutout innings Saturday afternoon in Game 2 to lead the nationally ranked Rock to a doubleheader sweep of hosting Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division rival Lock Haven.

In Game 1, The Rock had to work overtime before chalking up a 13-8 victory in eight innings.

Saturday's sweep, coupled with a split of Saturday's twinbill between Indiana U. of Pa. and Shippensburg, moved The Rock into a three-way tie for the PSAC-West lead.

The Rock is now 18-8 overall, 4-2 in divisional play, while Shippensburg is 14-12, 4-2 and Indiana 13-19, 4-2.

SRU meets Indiana in a four-game series next weekend (April 13-14).

First, though, the Green and White are scheduled to close out their season series vs. Lock Haven (7-17, 1-5) with a 1 p.m. twinbill Monday at Jack Critchfield Park.

The Rock, is also scheduled to travel to Wheeling Jesuit for a non-conference doubleheader Tuesday before turning its attention to Indiana.

Saturday's wins were the third and fourth straight for The Rock, which began the week ranked 24th in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association national poll and tied for 30th in the American Baseball Coaches Association/Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll.

Game 1

Jacob Oswalt was 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles and collected four RBIs to lead The Rock's 13-hit Game 1 attack. Phil Butch added three hits in five at bats and picked up two RBIs and Billy Messer had two hits and one RBI.

M.J. Parsons had only one hit in the game, but it was a huge one. His two-run single with no outs in the top of the eighth inning keyed a seven-run Rock uprising that determined the outcome of the game.

Other key ingredients in the outburst were a leadoff double and bases-loaded walk by Butch, a sacrifice fly by Travis Trimbur, an RBI single by Messer and a bases-loaded walk by Billy Herman.

The decisive rally was SRU's second scoring explosion of the game. The Rock opened the game with five runs in the top of the first inning, keyed by a two-run double by Oswalt.

SRU's first run of game scored when Dan Hudeck was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, while the other two Rock runs in the first inning scored on wild pitches.

Lock Haven came right back to score four times in the bottom of the first and, after SRU added a run in the top of the third to take a 6-4 lead, scored two tallies in the bottom of the third to tie the score at 6-6.

Oswalt led off The Rock third with a double and scored on Butch's two-out single.

Lock Haven scored a run in the bottom of the fifth to take a 7-6 lead before Oswalt got his third hit and picked up his third and fourth RBIs of the game to put SRU on top, 8-7, in the top of the seventh.

The hosts scored one run in the bottom of the seventh to send the game in extra innings before SRU exploded for seven runs in the eighth to end the shootout.

Craig Misiewicz (2-2), the second of three pitchers used by Rock head coach Jeff Messer, picked up the win. He allowed one unearned run on one hit and walked one in 2 2/3 innings of work.

Rock starting pitcher Derek Blyzwick allowed seven runs (five earned) on eight hits, struck out five and walked four in 4 1/3 innings. Tom Turnbull struck out one in the final frame.

Game 2

Hocanson improved his season record to 4-0 but had to "settle" for a two-hitter instead of his first collegiate "no-no" as Lock Haven got two runs on two hits in its final at-bat of Game 2.

He struck out four and walked two en route to his second straight complete-game performance.

In his previous outing on March 30, Hocanson tossed a four-hitter and struck out nine against PSAC-West preseason favorite California U. of Pa.

Scott Bender, fresh off a 5-for-7, four-RBI effort last Tuesday at Gannon, paced a 10-hit Rock offensive attack in Saturday's second game as he was 3-for-5 and collected five RBIs.

Bender picked up three of the RBIs when he smacked his first home run of the season in The Rock's eight-run third inning.

Herman, Parsons and Jim Eimiller had two hits each to complement Bender's offensive output. Butch had the only other Rock RBI of the game as SRU benefitted from shoddy fielding (7 errors) by the hosts to score eight unearned runs.

The Rock scored three times in the top of the first inning, keyed by an RBI single by Bender.

Four Lock Haven errors opened the door to The Rock's eight-run third inning, in which Butch picked up an RBI with a fielder's choice.

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