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Game 1 |
Game 2
MANSFIELD, Pa. – Slippery Rock University scored 14 runs on 18 hits in Tuesday's second game to salvage a split with hosting Mansfield University in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference interdivisional baseball doubleheader at Shaute Field.
The offensive explosion carried SRU to a 14-4 win after Mansfield recorded a 4-3 victory in the opening game.
Each team snapped a three-game losing skid with their win.
The Game 2 win improved SRU's season record to 21-11 and gave the Green and White a 2-1 edge over the Mountaineers (12-15) in the teams' season series.
Austin Benshadle (right photo),
Kevin Jovanovich and
John Shaffer had three hits each to lead The Rock's offensive effort in Game 2.
Jovanovich smacked his second home run of the season, a two-run blast as part of a three-run rally in the top of the first inning and added a two-run single as part of a three-run rally in the top of the seventh to finish the game with four RBIs.
Benshadle and Shaffer, who had a double and a triple, each picked up two RBIs in Game 2. Shaffer also had an RBI double to lead a five-hit Rock attack in Game 1.
Will Kengor and
Graeme Zaparzynski each had a pair of singles and
Royce Copeland slapped a two-RBI single as part of the Game 2 attack.
Mike Dunn was the beneficiary of The Rock's Game 2 offensive outburst. The junior right-hander improved his season record to 4-1 after he allowed three earned runs on eight hits, struck out three and walked two in the first six innings.
The Rock never led in Tuesday's first game and did not get their first hit until there was one out in the top of the fourth inning, but they made good use of that hit.
Jake Weibley lined an RBI double down the left-field line to push across Shaffer, who had reached base on an error and moved around on a passed ball and a wild pitch.
Mansfield, which had scored two runs on two hits in the bottom of the first inning to take a lead it would not relinquish, answered The Rock run with two tallies on one hit in the bottom of the fourth.
Undaunted by the three-run deficit, The Rock offense came right back to score two runs on three hits in the top of the fifth and trim the deficit to 4-3. Benshadle got the rally started with a leadoff single before back-to-back RBI doubles by Zaparzynski (left photo) and Shaffer produced the runs.
That proved to be the extent of the Game 1 scoring as Mansfield reliever Jeremy Mapstone retired The Rock quietly in both the sixth and seventh innings to record his third save of the season. Danny Brown (2-1) picked up the win.
Rock starting pitcher
Anton Constantino, a sophomore southpaw who saw his season record fall to 2-3, allowed four earned runs on six hits, struck out three, walked five, threw three wild pitches and hit one batter in the first four and one-third innings.
Junior right-hander
Anthony Naso relieved Constantino with one out in the fifth and allowed one hit, struck out two, walked one and threw two wild pitches in the final one and two-third innings.
The Rock rebounded from their narrow Game 1 loss to score three runs in the top of the first inning to take early and firm control of Game 2. Jovanovich's two-run home run was the big hit in the inning.
A native of Mansfield, Zaparzynski got The Rock's first-inning rally started with a one-out single and sprinted around the bases on Shaffer's opposite-field, RBI triple to right field.
Shaffer also plated the fourth Rock run with a one-out, RBI double to left-center field in the top of the third inning that allowed Kengor, who had singled to lead off the inning, to score from second base.
That was the first of six runs The Rock scored in the top of the third as
Jordan Faretta and Benshadle each slapped an RBI single, Kengor swatted a sacrifice fly and two runs scored on wild pitches.
Mansfield broke the goose egg on its side of the scoreboard with a run on two hits in the bottom of the third to make it a 9-1 game.
The Rock answered that tally with two runs on three hits in the top of the fourth inning to take an 11-1 lead. The big hit in that inning was Copeland's two-run single.
Mansfield cut the deficit to 11-3 with two runs in bottom of the fifth before The Rock scored three runs in the top of the seventh to conclude its offensive effort. The hosts then closed out their scoring with one run on two hits and one walk off Rock closer
John Kovalik in the bottom of the seventh.
SRU's returns to action at 1 p.m. Friday, when it visits Mercyhurst University in Erie for a 1 p.m. PSAC-Western Division doubleheader. The Rock and Lakers then close out their four-game season series with a 1 p.m. twinbill Saturday at Jack Critchfield Park in Slippery Rock.
