Game 1 boxscore
Game 2 boxscore
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team stumbled and fell twice Saturday on its way to the finish line in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division competition and had to settle for second place in the final division standings.
Mercyhurst College came to Jack Critchfield Park needing to win both games of Saturday's doubleheader in order to claim the outright division championship and the 23rd Lakers did just that.
A solo home run by Shane Latshaw with one out in the top of the ninth inning gave Mercyhurst an extra-inning, 5-4 win in the day's first game.
The Lakers then scored three runs in the top of the first inning of the second game and never looked back en route to a 4-1 win.
Senior shortstop
Adam Jury's solo home run with one out in the bottom of the fourth inning, his team-best sixth roundtripper of the season, accounted for SRU's only run. Jury (pictured) also had three hits in Saturday's first game.
With the wins in the final two games of the PSAC-West season, Mercyhurst (34-10 overall, 16-7 PSAC-W) took the season series against SRU by a 3-1 margin and earned the division's top seed in the conference tournament May 11-14 at Point Stadium in Johnstown.
SRU (27-17, 15-9 PSAC-W), which needed only one win Saturday to clinch the division's top seed in the conference tournament and at least a share of the PSAC-West title, instead had to settle for second place and the No. 2 seed.
Saturday's losses were the third and fourth suffered by The Rock in the last six games, all in the past week.
The Rock will face the No. 3 team from the PSAC-Eastern Division in an opening-round game of the conference tournament, while Mercyhurst draws the No. 4 team from the PSAC-East.
The third- and fourth-place finishers in the PSAC-East will not be determined until at least May 8 due to the need to play games postponed from earlier in the season. No PSAC games can be played from May 1-7 due to the spring semester final examination period observed by all Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education institutions.
More details on Saturday's games will be posted Sunday.
