Click here to view Game 1 boxscore
Click here to view Game 2 boxscore
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. -- The Rock recorded one of the most bizarre doubleheader sweeps in fastpitch softball history Thursday afternoon against visiting non-conference foe Lake Erie College of Ohio.
SRU scored 11 runs in the bottom of the seventh and final inning to win Game 1 by a 14-12 margin, then claimed Game 2 via the "mercy rule," 15-6.
Both games ended on walkoff home runs.
Stacey Rhoades smacked a three-run shot to account for the winning runs in Game 1 before
Courtney Vincent's two-run blast brought an early end to Game 2.
The Game 1 win snapped a four-game losing streak for the Green and White, who will take a 16-10 record into Friday's 2:30 p.m. doubleheader vs. California U. of Pa.
Thursday's Game 1 win was also the 100th recorded by fifth-year Rock head coach Vashion Johnson, who now needs two wins to move into second place on SRU's all-time wins list.
Jan Kasnevich (1977-86) is the all-time leader with 139 wins, followed by
Laurie Lokash (1987-96) with 102.
Game 1
Rhoades' game-winning roundtripper was the fourth smacked by The Rock in the final inning and fifth hit by the Green White in Thursday's first game as The Rock snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
Jordan Zeunges had a pair of two-run circuit clouts, the second of which got the decisive final-inning rally started.
Meghan McHenry hit a three-run shot and
Sheree Horvath had a solo blast as part of the decisive frame.
Zeunges was 3-for-5 with four RBIs in the game, while
Jessica Kortz had four hits and collected two RBIs.
The Rock finished the game with 15 hits, seven of which came in the final frame and seven of which were for extra bases (two doubles, five HRs).
The final-inning explosion gave SRU its only lead of the game and made a winner of Rock relief pitcher
Shauna Walker, who allowed six earned runs on six hits, struck out two and walked three in four innings.
Rhoades yielded six earned runs on nine hits and struck out one in the first three frames.
Lake Erie (13-13) took a quick 2-0 lead with two tallies in the top of the first inning and expanded its advantage to 6-0 with four runs in the third inning.
SRU cut the margin to 6-2 with two runs in the bottom of the third. Each team scored one run in the fourth frame to make it a 7-3 game, which is the way the score remained until the final inning.
Lake Erie scored five times in the top of the seventh to take a 12-3 lead and seemingly put the game away, but that ultimately proved to be a false assumption.
Zeunges' second two-run HR cut the Storm lead to 12-5 before a two-run single by Kortz made it 12-7. McHenry's three-run blast, followed immediately by Horvath's solo shot, then trimmed the margin to 12-11 and set the stage for Rhoades' game-winning blast over the right center field fence.
Game 2
The Rock appeared to have Game 2 well in hand with an 8-0 lead after two innings, but the Storm roared back to score six runs in the top of the fifth to trim the margin to two runs.
SRU came right back to score three runs in the bottom of the fifth and four more talllies in the sixth, though, to bring an early end to the proceedings.
Vincent's game-ending HR was the third smacked by The Rock in Game 2. Kortz clouted a two-run shot as part of a six-run second-inning rally and McHenry mashed a two-run shot as part of the final-inning outburst.
Vincent and
Stephanie Spisak were each 3-for-3 and picked up two RBIs to lead another 15-hit Rock attack in Game 2, while McHenry and
Nikki Collins each had two hits.
McHenry's three RBIs led The Rock in that category while Kortz and Zeunges joined Spisak and Vincent as two-RBI performers.
Rock starting and eventual winning pitcher
Lisa Getgen tossed four and one-third scoreless innings, allowed four hits and struck out one to pick up the win.
But she was called upon to re-enter the game and quell a Lake Erie rally after the Storm had scored six earned runs on nine hits in one and two-thirds innings off Horvath, who entered the game in the top of the fourth inning.
