May 4, 2007

Box Score

Slippery Rock, Pa. - A pair of squandered bases-loaded opportunities early in the game came back to haunt The Rock in Friday night's Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Baseball Championship tournament game at Jack Critchfield Park.

The Rock converted the opportunities into only one run and wound up on the short end of a 7-2 decision vs. California U. of Pa.

The loss dropped SRU (33-14) into Saturday's 1 p.m. semifinal game vs. Shippensburg (25-22).

The winner of that game returns at 4:30 p.m. to meet California (35-14) in the championship game.

The Rock entered Friday's action as the only team team that was unbeaten in tournament play while four other teams had a one loss each.

California remained alive with a 4-3 win over Kutztown, the No. 1-ranked team in the nation, in Friday's first game. Shippensburg then beat East Stroudsburg 4-1 before the Rock-California game.

The losses by Kutztown and East Stroudsburg depleted the supply of PSAC-Eastern Division teams in the tournament and leave the three PSAC-West teams as the only squads still entertaining state title hopes.

California, The Rock and Shippensburg finished the regular-season in that order in the PSAC-West standings.

Fridays' game

The Rock, which had won 12 of 14 games prior to Friday night, did very little right vs. California.

SRU had a chance to take an early lead when it loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the second inning but could not get the clutch hit.

Two innings later, in the top of the fourth, The Rock reloaded the bases, this time with only one out, but again sputtered. A leadoff single by Scott Bender and two walks packed the sacks before a third walk pushed across the only run of the inning. Billy Herman got the easy RBI.

California made The Rock pay dearly for the blown opportunity as the Vulcans came right back to score three runs in the bottom of the fourth to assume control of the proceedings.

The Vulcans extended their lead to 4-1 with a run in the sixth inning before the wheels came off the proverbial wagon for SRU in the seventh.

Three bases on balls, two Rock errors, two wild pitches and a single resulted in three more California runs and made the score 7-1.

SRU got its final run in the top of the ninth on a leadoff walk to Phil Butch and an RBI double down the right field line by Matt Adams.

The double was Adams' 20th of the season and leaves him one shy of the school record shared by Dan DeCola (2000) and Alan Reichl (2003).

Rock starting pitcher Chris Squeglia (2-6) was the victim of the squandered early opportunities. He struck out six and walked one in five and one-third innings, but also allowed four earned runs on seven hits and had one wild pitch.

Josh Rape walked three, had two wild pitches and allowed three earned runs on no hits in one inning of work. Tom Turnbull yielded one hit and struck out one in two-thirds of an inning and Mike DeCola struck out two and walked one in one inning.

Rich Michalek had a pair of singles and was the only Rock player to have more than one hit in the game. Adams' double was the only extra-base hit for SRU.