Game 1 boxscore

Game 2 boxscore

CLARION, Pa. -- The Rock earned a berth in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference playoffs for a third consecutive season Saturday by virtue of its 7-1, 23-7 doubleheader sweep of hosting Clarion in PSAC-Western Division action.

The sweep gave SRU a 12-8 record in division play and a tie wtih California U. of Pa. for third place in the final PSAC-West standings.

The Rock (25-21 overall) won the tiebreaker to determine the division's third and final playoff representative by virtue of its 2-2 mark in head-to-head meetings with second-place Indiana U. of Pa.

California, which entered the final weekend of division play alone atop the PSAC-West standings, lost three of four games vs. IUP, one Friday and two Saturday.

Shippensburg (33-21) won the PSAC-West title with a 14-6 division record, followed by Indiana (36-17) at 13-7 and both SRU and California (28-16) at 12-8.

The Rock will face PSAC-Eastern Division regular-season champion Millersville (22-24 overall, 12-8 PSAC-E) in first-round action of the PSAC tournament at Clipper Magazine Stadium in Lancaster.

Starting time for first-round game have not yet been set, but it is anticipated The Rock-Millersville game will be the opening game of the tournament and will have a 4 p.m. first pitch on Wednesday.

Saturday's games

The Rock never trailed in Saturday's twinbill as the Green and White scored four runs in the top of the first inning of Game 1 and six runs in the top of the first inning of Game 2.

Clarion scored its only Game 1 run in the bottom of the first before SRU got single tallies in the foruth, sixth and seventh innings to set the final margin.

In Game 2, Clarion scored one run in the bottom of the first to trim SRU's lead to 6-1, only to see the Green and White respond with three runs in the top of the second.

The hosts refused to go easy, though, as they scored five times in the bottom of the second to make it a 9-6 game.

Two runs in the top of the third and a single tally in the top of the six pushed SRU's lead to 12-6 before Clarion got its final run of the day in the bottom of the sixth to make it 12-7.

SRU then exploded for 11 runs in the top of the seventh to blow the game wide open.

Sophomore All-America catcher/first baseman Matt Adams swung the hottest bat for The Rock as he finished the day with seven hits in nine at bats. He collected a total of seven RBIs in the twinbill, for of which came on a grand slam home run in the top of the seventh in Game 2. The roundtripper was Adams' team-high eighth of the campaign.

Rich Michalek and #M.J. Parsons# (1 RBI) each had a total of four hits Saturday, while Billy Herman collected three hits and five RBIs and Dan Hudeck had three hits and one RBI.

Herman, Parsons, Scott Bender and Billy Messer each had a double in Game 1 to account for the only extra-base hits of the game.

Matt Messer smacked a three-run home run -- his second circuit clout of the season -- to join Adams in the Game 2 roundtripper club, while Adams, Billy Messer and Parsons each had a double.

The Rock had 31 hits in the twinbill, 19 of which were recorded in Game 2, while Rock pitchers allowed seven and nine hits in the respective games.

Don Pugliese pitched a complete-game in the opener to improve his season record to 1-2. He yielded one unearned run, struck out six and walked one.

Rock Game 2 starting pitcher Vince Lloyd lasted only two batters before being forced to leave the game with an injury. He allowed one earned run on one hit and walked one in his brief stint.

Brett Vescovi replaced Lloyd on the mound and allowed five earned runs on six hits, struck out one and walked one in one and two-thirds innings. He was credited with the win, his third against only one loss this spring.

Mike DeCola worked the final five and one-third innings to pick up his first save of the season. One of The Rock's co-captains, he struck out seven, walked four and allowed one earned run on two hits.

Playoff picture: Shippensburg, the defending state champion, will face the yet-to-determined PSAC-East third-place team in first-round action. The other opening-round game will pit Indiana against the yet-to-be-determined PSAC-East runner-up.

The double-elimination PSAC tournament will run Wednesday through Saturday.

The final PSAC-East standings and the PSAC tournament pairings won't be determined until Sunday, when Mansfield takes on Bloomsburg in a doubleheader postponed from Saturday.

A Mansfield sweep Sunday sends the Mounties (31-18, 10-8) to Lancaster as the PSAC-East's No. 2 seed.

A Mansfield loss Sunday would leave the Mounties at home for the conference playoffs and send Kutztown (25-21, 11-9) and West Chester (38-12, 11-9) to Lancaster as the PSAC-East's No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, respectively.

Kutztown, the defending NCAA Division II North Atlantic Regional champion, assured itself of a PSAC playoff berth with a sweep Saturday of West Chester, which is currently the the top-ranked team in the region. The sweep gave Kutztown the tiebreaker edge over West Chester by virtue of the Golden Bears' 3-1 record in the head-to-head series vs. WCU.

If Mansfield sweeps Bloomsburg Sunday to finish with the same 12-8 division record as Millersville, the Mounties would lose the tiebreaker vs. the Marauders by virtue of a lesser record vs. Kutztown, the No. 3 team in the division. Millersville was 3-1 vs. KU, Mansfield 2-2.

Mansfield, if it finishes the PSAC-East season with the same 11-9 record as West Chester, would lose the tiebreaker vs. the Golden Rams by virtue of a lesser record vs. Millersville, the division champion. West Chester was 4-0 vs. Millersville this spring, Mansfield 1-3.

The winner of the PSAC tournament earns an automatic berth in the North Atlantic Regional tournament, which will be played May 15-17 at a site yet to be determined.