Game 2 boxscore
INDIANA, Pa. – Slippery Rock University blew a 3-0 lead and lost Game 1, then took out its frustration in Game 2 to salvage a split in Friday's Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division baseball doubleheader vs. Indiana (Pa.).
SRU scored the first 15 runs, including 12 in the top of the third inning, to win the second game by an 18-4 score after it dropped a 4-3 decision in Game 1.
The Game 1 loss was the 10th one-run setback The Rock has sustained this spring.
The split gave The Rock a 21-20-1 overall record and a 9-9 PSAC-West mark heading into Saturday's 1 p.m. scheduled doubleheader vs. IUP (20-22-1, 6-12 PSAC-W) at Jack Critchfield Park in Slippery Rock.
The Rock appeared to have Friday's Game 1 under control with a 3-0 lead after four and a half innings against IUP ace Stephen Cooke (6-1).
Matt Accardi's second home run of the season, a two-run shot in the top of the fourth inning, gave The Rock a 2-0 lead.
An inning later,
Ben Bechtol stroked an RBI double to make it a 3-0 game and put runners on second and third bases with only one out.
Cooke quickly slammed the door on The Rock rally, though, as he recorded back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning.
That proved to be the last Rock scoring threat of the game.
IUP, meanwhile, rode the emotional wave of that shutdown effort by Cooke to score two runs in the bottom of the fifth and one run in both the sixth and seventh innings to snatch the victory.
The first two IUP runs scored as a direct result of back-to-back walks by the first two batters, a bunt single and a Rock error.
The fifth-inning walks were two of three issued by Rock starting pitcher
Zach Jeney, who had an uncharacteristically wild day. The senior southpaw also hit two batters in five and two-thirds innings of work while allowing three runs (two earned) on four hits and striking out one.
John Kovalik pitched the final two-thirds of an inning and allowed one run on two hits, struck out one and walked one. The sophomore right-hander was tagged with the loss and saw his season record fall to 3-4.
The RBI extra-base hits by Accardi and Bechtol highlighted a six-hit Rock offensive attack. No Rock player had more than one hit in the game.
Brandon Myers paced The Rock's Game 2 attack with three hits and six RBI. He had a two-run single and smacked his team-best fourth home run, a three-run shot, as part of the 12-run third inning and added an RBI single in the fifth frame.
Kevin Jovanovich and
Will Kengor (pictured) matched Myers' hit total and each added three RBI to the winning attack, while
Matt Kosik had two hits and two RBI and
Lee Foxton two hits and one RBI. Accardi also had two hits as part of The Rock's season-high 18-hit Game 2 attack.
Jovanovich's RBI double plated the first Rock run in the top of the second inning. Kosik and
Derek Carr followed with an RBI single each to give SRU a 3-0 lead.
Myers' two-run single and three-run roundtripper headlined The Rock's 12-run third-inning explosion. Kengor added a three-run double. Jovanovich, Kosik and Foxton each had an RBI single to add to the effort, while
John Shaffer got an RBI via a bases-loaded walk.
Trailing 15-0, the Crimson Hawks refused to go down without a fight, though. They scored three times in the bottom of the third and once in the fourth to trim the margin to 15-4.
The Rock responded with three runs in the top of the fifth inning, keyed by RBI singles by Jovanovich and Myers, to push the margin to 18-4.
Garret Peterson (4-4) was the beneficiary of The Rock's offensive explosion. The freshman right-handed pitcher struck out six, walked five and allowed four earned runs on five hits in six innings.
Anthony Naso pitched the final inning and walked one batter.
