Game 2 boxscore

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Slippery Rock University's baseball team cashed the proverbial huge gut-check Wednesday when it salvaged a split with nationally-ranked Seton Hill University in doubleheader action at Jack Critchfield Park.

Seton Hill, ranked in the top 20 in all three Division II national polls, won Game 1 by a 5-1 score before The Rock rebounded to take a 4-1 lead and hold off the Griffins for a 4-3 win in Game 2.

The Game 2 win was significant for a few reasons:

1) SRU had suffered its most lopsided loss in 30 seasons, a 20-0 defeat last Sunday at the hands of Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division rival Gannon University, in its last outing prior to Wednesday;

2) Coupled with an 8-5 win March 8, the Game 2 win Wednesday gave SRU a 2-1 advantage in the season series;

3) The loss was only the fifth sustained by Seton Hill in 21 games this spring;

4) The Rock is now 3-7 in one-run games after losing seven of the previous eight narrow decisions.

SRU will look to ride the momentum of Wednesday's Game 2 win into its four-game PSAC-West weekend series vs. Lock Haven University. That series starts with a 1 p.m. doubleheader Friday in Bald Eagle territory and concludes with a 1 p.m. doubleheader Saturday at Critchfield Park.

The Rock scored all four of their Game 2 runs Wednesday in the bottom of the second inning. The key hits were a bases-loaded bloop single to left field by senior catcher Matt Accardi that plated two runs, followed by a sharp RBI single up the middle by sophomore shortstop Will Kengor.

The first Rock run scored on a bases-loaded ground out by junior left fielder Ben Bechtol. Back-to-back one-out singles by sophomore right fielder Graeme Zaparzynski and junior second baseman Matt Curtis and a walk to senior center fielder and captain Carter Haponski set the stage for Bechtol's RBI ground out, which knotted the score at 1-1.

Down by a 4-1 score, Seton Hill got two runs back in the top of the fifth to make it a 4-3 game.

Two innings later, in their final at-bat, the Griffins had the potential tying run at third base and the potential go-ahead run at second base with only one out.

The threat ended harmlessly, though, as Rock relief ace John Kovalik, a sophomore right-hander, recorded a swinging strikeout and induced a game-ending ground out from the next two batters to face him.

Kovalik, who picked up his second save of the season, was the third pitcher used in the game by veteran Rock head coach Jeff Messer.

Junior righty Nic McCowin started and pitched a solid four and one-third innings. He allowed three earned runs on five hits, struck out three and walked three and ultimately was awarded the win to even his season record at 2-2.

McCowin gave way to sophomore righty Anthony Naso, who allowed one hit and struck out two in one inning of work before he turned things over to Kovalik with one out in the top of the fifth.

Offensively, Kengor had two of The Rock's six singles in Game 2.

The Rock also had six hits in Game 1, led by a pair of singles by senior third baseman Lee Foxton. Kengor collected the only Rock RBI in the game with a fourth-inning ground out.

Freshman southpaw Anton Constantino (1-1) gave a gutsy five-inning starting pitcher effort in Game 1 but was tagged with the loss after he allowed five earned runs on six hits, struck out two and walked five.

Freshman righty Kyle Schneider held Seton Hill to two hits, struck out three and hit two batters in the final two frames.

Notes:

Wednesday's split was SRU's sixth in nine doubleheaders this spring. The Rock swept Ohio Valley in the opening twinbill of the season before getting swept by Wheeling Jesuit and Shippensburg in back-to-back doubleheaders ... Seton Hill was ranked 10th in this week's D2baseballnews.com national poll, 11th in the American Baseball Coaches Association poll and 17th in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll. The Griffins were the No. 2 team in the NCBWA Atlantic Regional poll. SRU received votes in the regional ranking.