Game 1 boxscore
Game 2 boxscore

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – Junior first baseman John Shaffer singled home the winning run with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning of Monday's second game to give Slippery Rock University a 2-1 win over NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional rival University of Charleston (W. Va.) and a split in a baseball doubleheader at Chain O'Lakes Park.

Charleston (8-3) scored three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning of the first game to break a  2-2 deadlock and record a 5-2 victory.

The split gave The Rock a 5-7-1 record as they prepare to take on Minnesota-Duluth in a 1:30 p.m. doubleheader Tuesday at Chain O'Lakes Park.

The Rock set the stage of Shaffer's Game 2 winning hit, a high hopper to third base that could not be fielded cleanly, by loading the bases with no outs on a pair of bases on balls and a Charleston error on a sacrifice bunt.

Shaffer's game-winning hit came one batter after senior captain and left fielder Carter Haponski's ground ball to third resulted in a forceout at home plate and left the bases loaded.

Haponski plated The first Rock run in Game 2 with a sacrifice fly to center field in the bottom of the fifth after sophomore shortstop Will Kengor and senior center fielder Derek Carr sandwiched a flyout with a single each.

Junior designated hitter Ben Bechtol was 2-for-3 to lead a six-hit Rock attack in Game 2.

Senior southpaw Jason Steen pitched the first four innings of Game 2 before he gave way to sophomore right-hander John Kovalik, who finished the game.

Steen allowed one earned run on four hits and struck out three batters. Kovalik struck out two, walked one and hit one batter in three innings of work and evened his season record at 1-1.

The Rock's Game 1 runs came as a result of two long balls, a leadoff triple into the left-field corner by Carr in the top of the first inning and a solo home run to left by senior catcher Matt Accardi (pictured) in the top of the fourth.

Senior third baseman Lee Foxton hit an opposite-way ground ball with one out to allow Carr to scamper home with the first run of the game.

Charleston answered that run with a tally of their own in the bottom of the first, then took a 2-1 lead with a run in the bottom of the third before Accardi retied the score at 2-2 in the top of the fourth.

Undaunted, Charleston, which had only five hits in the game, pasted three safeties together to account for the three-run outburst in the bottom of the fourth.

Accardi, who hit his first roundtripper of the season, finished the game with two hits to lead a seven-hit Rock attack. Carr's triple was SRU's only extra-base hit.

Junior right-hander Nic McCowin (1-1) pitched a complete game for SRU. He allowed five runs (four earned), on five hits, struck out seven, walked five and hit one batter.

After Tuesday's meetings with Minnesota-Duluth, The Rock close out their spring-break schedule with back-to-back 10 a.m. single games, Wednesday vs. region rival West Chester University and Thursday vs. Winona State University of Minnesota, last year's Division II national runner-up.

The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division opener is Saturday at Gannon University. After playing two games in Erie, SRU and Gannon close out their four-game season series with a 1 p.m. doubleheader Sunday at Jack Critchfield Park in Slippery Rock. Those will be the first home games of the season for the Green and White.