Game 2 boxscore

ERIE, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team cashed another proverbial “gutcheck” Saturday afternoon with a 1-0, 5-3 (8 innings) sweep of hosting and 23rd-ranked Mercyhurst University in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division doubleheader.

The wins came less than 24 hours after Mercyhurst mauled The Rock by 10-0 and 19-6 scores in Slippery Rock to snap an eight-game SRU win streak.

Saturday's sweep moved The Rock's overall record back over the .500 mark to 20-19-1 and evened the Green and White's PSAC-West record at 8-8.

Mercyhurst saw its season records fall to 28-11 overall and 10-6 in division action.

The roads to victory were paved by strong pitching efforts by sophomore right-handers Lou Trivino and John Kovalik (pictured) against a Mercyhurst offense that ranked second in the conference in hitting with a .323 team batting average.

Trivino pitched five and two-thirds innings of no-hit ball and wound up with a two-hit, seven-inning, complete-game performance in Game 1. He struck out seven and walked three en route to his seventh win in nine decisions this spring.

A second-team All-PSAC-West performer in 2011, Trivino recorded back-to-back strikeouts in the bottom of the fifth inning to work out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam set up by two bases on balls and a Rock throwing error.

Kovalik was equally masterful. He relieved Game 2 starter Nic McCowin in the third inning and the score tied 3-3 and proceeded to hold the Lakers to only two hits in the final six innings.

Kovalik did not record a strikeout but only walked one batter in the process of evening his season record at 3-3.

Junior first baseman John Shaffer and freshman left fielder Austin Benshadle singled home a run in the first and seventh inning, respectively, to give Trivino all the offensive support he would need in Game 1.

Shaffer and senior catcher Matt Accardi each had a pair of hits to pace a six-hit Rock attack.

Senior center fielder Derek Carr led off Game 1 with a single to right field, stole second and scored what would prove to be the only run The Rock needed to win the game on Shaffer's one-out single in the top of the first inning.

Accardi led off The Rock seventh with an infield single, moved to second on sacrifice bunt by senior Lee Foxton and scored an insurance run on Benshadle's single to right-center field.

The Rock scored five unanswered runs to record the Game 2 win after Mercyhurst scored three times in the bottom of the second inning against McCowin.

Back-to-back singles by sophomore right fielder Brandon Myers and Foxton in the top of the third inning started a Rock rally that would ultimately produce three runs and tie the score at 3-3.

A Mercyhurst throwing error and wild pitch aided The Rock cause and allowed the first two SRU runs to score before Shaffer brought the third tally home with an opposite-way ground out.

Kovalik and Mercyhurst pitcher Zach Leitten threw goose eggs at the respective teams through the completion of regulation play before The Rock struck twice in the top of the eighth for the winning runs.

Benshadle got the rally started with a one-out walk and promptly stole second before being replaced by pinch runner Kyle Schneider. Schneider moved to third on a wild pitch and scored what proved to be the game-winning run on an RBI single to right by Carr.

Carr, who was one of four Rock players with a hit in the game, came around to score the final Rock run on a pair of passed balls and a wild pitch.

The Rock returns to action Friday, when they travel to Indiana (Pa.) for a 1 p.m. PSAC-West doubleheader. SRU and IUP then close out their four-game season series with a  1 p.m. twinbill Saturday at Jack Critchfield Park in Slippery Rock.