ERIE, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team began its 2015 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division schedule with a doubleheader loss at Mercyhurst University on Sunday. Slippery Rock had leads in both games before suffering 2-1 and 4-1 defeats.
 
The losses drop The Rock's record to 7-6 overall and 0-2 in PSAC-West play. Mercyhurst improves to 8-0 overall and 2-0 in league contests.
 
GAME ONE: Mercyhurst 2 – Slippery Rock 1
SRU struck first in the opening inning when Logan Brown connected on a single that scored Preston Falascino, who reached base earlier in the frame when he was hit by a pitch, from second base to give The Rock an early 1-0 advantage.
 
With a one-run lead, starting pitcher Ryan Oglesby (1-1) proceeded to hold Mercyhurst scoreless over the next 6.2 innings. However, he was unable to finish off the shutout victory as Hank Morrison hit a two-out single and later scored on a hit by Austin Alonge. Jake Marinelli then snuck a bloop single into the outfield to plate Alonge and give the Lakers the walkoff-win.
 
Slippery Rock seemed poised to add more runs in the seventh inning when Kyle Vozar produced a two-out double and James Divosevic walked to put runners on first and second, but Laker pitcher Colin McKee (2-0) managed to get out of the jam to keep The Rock's lead at 1-0 by inducing groundball-out to end the inning.

Oglesby finished the afternoon having struck out five batters and allowed six hits and only one walk over 6.2 innings of work. In addition to Brown's and Divosevic's hits, Adam Urbania also registered a double and a pair of walks for The Rock's offense.
 
McKee had nine strikeouts in seven innings to earn the victory for Mercyhurst.
 
GAME TWO: Mercyhurst 4 – Slippery Rock 1
The second game of the day's doubleheader was another pitchers dual that saw Slippery Rock's Kyle Schneider (2-1) and Mercyhurst's Jon Klein allow just one run each through the first five innings.
 
Slippery Rock once again scored first in game two thanks to Alex Bell, who led off the inning with a single and worked his way to third base on back-to-back Rock groundouts before finally touching home plate on a passed ball.
 
The Lakers evened the score at 1-1 in the fourth on an RBI-single by Alonge and following a scoreless fifth inning Mercyhurst broke the game open with a three-run sixth inning that included back-to-back run-scoring singles and a sacrifice-bunt RBI.
 
Bell collected his second hit of the afternoon with a one-out single in the seventh inning and later advanced to second on a wild pitch, but The Rock would be unable to complete the rally as Jake Hall came on in relief of Klein to record the final two outs of the game to secure the sweep.
 
Schneider finished the game scattering 10 hits, striking out four, allowing no walks and giving up four runs, only two of which were earned. The two earned runs were the first against Schneider, who leads SRU with a 0.78 ERA, this season.
 
Bell went 2-for-3 with one run scored to pace The Rock's batters in the nightcap. Vozar walked once and Urbania stole his third base of the season as well.

Slippery Rock will look to return to its winning ways when it hosts Indiana (Pa.) on Friday for a doubleheader at Jack Critchfield Park. First pitch of game one is slated for 1 p.m.