May 3, 2007
Box Score
Slippery Rock, pa. -
The nationally ranked Rock rang up its second win in as many Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Baseball Championship tournament games Thursday with an 8-2 triumph over Western Division champion California U. of Pa.
The win, coupled with a loss by top-ranked Kutztown in Thursday's fourth and final game, leaves SRU as the only team with a 2-0 tournament record.
Four other teams (California, East Stroudsburg, Kutztown and Shippensburg) each own 1-1 record at the midway mark of the four-day tournament at Jack Critchfield Park.
Those four teams will be featured in a pair of elimination games Friday before The Rock takes the field at 7 p.m.
Kutztown (45-4) and California (34-14) will butt heads at noon, followed at 3:30 p.m. by a duel between East Stroudsburg (23-21) and Shippensburg (24-22).
The winner of the Kutztown-California game will play SRU in the third and final game on Friday's schedule.
A win at 7 p.m. Friday would move SRU into the state championship series at 1 p.m. Saturday and would force a team to beat The Rock twice to deprive the Green and White of the title.
A loss at 7 p.m. Friday leaves three teams with one loss each to battle it out for the title on the final day of competition. In that scenario, SRU would need to win back-to-back games to capture its fifth PSAC title and first since 2001.
Thursday's game
Dan Hudeck and Billy Messer had a pair of hits and collected two RBIs each to lead a nine-hit Rock attack vs. California.
Matt Adams and Billy Herman also had a pair of hits and picked up one RBI each, while Jacob Oswalt had a hit and an RBI ans Scott Bender collected an RBI. Herman and Dan Hudeck had a double each to account for SRU's extra-base hits.
A four-run, five-hit Rock rally in the bottom of the fifth inning erased a 2-1 California lead and proved to be the difference in the game. Key hits in the uprising included an RBI double by Hudeck and RBI singles by Adams, Herman and Oswalt.
A ground out by Hudeck plated SRU's first run in the bottom of the first inning to answer a California tally in the top of the first.
California regained the lead with a run in the top of the fifth before The Rock's eruption in the bottom of that inning.
The Rock concluded the game's scoring with three tallies in the bottom of the seventh, keyed by a two-run single to right field by Messer and a run-scoring ground out by Bender with the bases loaded.
Rich Hocanson scattered six hits, allowed two earned runs, struck out three and walked one in the first six innings to pick up the win, his sixth in as many decisions this spring.
Craig Misiewicz pitched three scoreless, hitless innings in relief and struck out two to pick up his first save of the season.
Notes:
Thursday's win was The Rock's second in as many days over a team ranked higher than it in the all-important NCAA Division II North Atlantic Regional poll that will ultimately determine the six teams that compete in the regional tournament (May 17--19).
California and West Chester were ranked second and third in this week's NCAA regional poll behind Kutztown. SRU was ranked fifth behind West Virginia State.
SRU's wins over California and West Chester (13-5 in opening-round action Wednesday) virtually assure The Rock of a berth in the regional tournament.
In addition to being ranked fifth in the NCAA regional poll, SRU also began the tournament ranked 25th in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Division II national poll, tied for 30th in the American Baseball Coaches Association/Collegiate Baseball Newspaper national poll and third in the NCBWA regional poll.
California was ranked 23rd in the NCBWA national poll, 27th in the ABCA/CBN national poll and second in the NCBWA regional poll. West Chester was ranked fourth in the NCBWA regional poll.
Kutztown began the week ranked first in the ABCA/CBN and NCBWA national polls, as well as the NCAA and NCBWA regional polls.
Rock head coach Jeff Messer is now two wins away from the 700-victory milestone. The 22nd-year Rock boss now owns a 698-389-4 career record.
For the first time in the three-year history of a six-team PSAC tournament, five teams remain alive after two days of competition in the quest for the conference championship.
The home team (determined by the highest finish in the respective division standings or a coin flip) has won all six games played in this year's conference tournament.
