May 17, 2007

Box Score

Kutztown, Pa. - The Rock rode a 12-hit offensive attack and clutch pitching performances to a 6-3 win Thursday over California U. of Pa. in first-round action of the NCAA Division II North Atlantic Regional tournament.

The win ended a two-game losing skid for SRU, but more importantly it moved the fourth-seeded Rock (34-15) into Friday's 4 p.m. winners bracket game vs. fifth-seeded West Chester (31-15).

West Chester knocked off second-seeded West Virginia State (36-16) by a 2-0 score in Thursday's first game, while top-seeded Kutztown (46-5) nipped No. 6 Shippensburg (27-23) by a 4-3 score in Game 2.

Shippensburg and West Chester will meet at 9 a.m. Friday in an elimination game, followed at 12:30 p.m. by a duel between Kutztown and California and the 4 p.m. SRU-WCU battle.

Thursday's game

Dan Hudeck paced The Rock's winning offensive attack with two hits, including a solo home run that tied the score at 2-2. He also scored two runs.

Hudeck was one of five Rock players who finished the game with two hits. Scott Bender and M.J. Parsons had two hits and one RBI each, while Phil Butch and Billy Herman added a pair of hits.

Bender also had the game-winning RBI with a sacrifice fly in the top of the eighth inning.

Parsons singled through the left side of the infield to plate The Rock's first run in the top of the fourth inning and tie the score at 1-1.

Leading by a 3-2 score thanks to Bender's sacrifice fly, The Rock scored three insurance tallies -- on only one hit -- in the top of the ninth.

Billy Messer lined a single up the middle to start the ninth-inning rally and Matt Adams lifted a sacrifice fly to left field to end it. In between, SRU benefitted from a California throwing error on a sacrifice bunt by Butch, a wild pitch and two bases on balls.

Had it not been for some clutch pitching by Rock starter Rich Hocanson and relievers Craig Misiewicz and Mike DeCola, all the offensive fireworks would not have mattered, though.

Hocanson worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the bottom of the fifth inning with the score tied at 2-2. He struck out Lee Rohan, who was named last week as the PSAC-Western Division "Player of the Year," for the second out and then induced an inning-ending flyout.

Two innings later, Misiewicz wiggled out of a similar jam as he induced Rohan to bounce into an inning-ending double play in another bases-loaded, one-out situation.

DeCola delivered the final ice-water-in-the-veins pitching effort. He relieved Misiewicz with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and was greeted by an RBI double that plated the final California run and trimmed the margin to three runs. But he promptly slammed the door as he recorded a game-inning strikeout with the potential tying run in the on-deck circle.

Hocanson yielded two runs (one earned) on six hits, struck out five and walked one in the first five innings; Misiewicz allowed one run on two hits, struck out four and walked six in three and two-thirds innings before DeCola allowed one hit in one-third of an inning.

Misiewicz picked up the win to improve his season record to 4-2.

Tournament scenario

At least one team -- the loser of a 9 a.m. game between Shippensburg and West Virginia State -- will be eliminated from the six-team, double-elimination tournament on Friday.

A California loss to Kutztown in the 12:30 p.m. game Friday would send the Vulcans home as the second team eliminated.

As for The Rock, a win over West Chester could move the Green and White into a 9 a.m. Saturday winners bracket final game vs. Kutztown, or it could move SRU into a 4:30 p.m. Saturday game against either Kutztown or West Chester.

A Rock loss on Friday would set up a variety of scenarios too complicated to attempt to explain here.

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