JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team closed its regular season on a strong note Saturday with a doubleheader sweep at Pitt-Johnstown in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division play at Point Stadium.
The Rock matched its highest run output of the year in a 16-3 win in game one while pulling off its seventh comeback victory of the season in a 12-11 game-two victory.
Slippery Rock exits the regular season at 29-16 overall and 18-10 in PSAC-West games. SRU, which has won 12 of its last 14 games, earned the No. 3 seed out of the PSAC-West and will play West Chester University, the PSAC-East's No. 2 seed, Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. in the opening game of the PSAC Tournament. The tournament is being held at Kelly Automotive Park in Butler, Pennsylvania.
SRU defeated West Chester twice earlier in the season. Slippery Rock will be looking for its first PSAC title since 2001. One more victory would also give Slippery Rock its 17th 30-win season in program history.
Preston Falascino continued his stellar play as of late with another great effort Saturday. Falascino allowed just three runs over six innings to earn the win on the mound in game one before driving in three runs on two hits at the plate in game two.
Adam Urbania furthered his historic hitting streak with a pair of multi-hit games. Urbania's hitting streak is now at 32 games, which is tied for the 16th longest streak in NCAA Division II history.
Carson Kessler drove in five runs and
Logan Brown furthered his own hitting streak to 10 games to round out The Rock's top performers against Pitt-Johnstown.
GAME ONE: Slippery Rock 16 – Pitt-Johnstown 3Slippery Rock found itself in a scoreless game through three innings before exploding for its top offensive performance of the season in its 16-3 game-one victory. In addition to matching its season-high for runs scored, Slippery Rock also totaled team season-bests of 19 hits and six home runs.
Urbania and
Alex Bell started the attack in the fourth with back-to-back solo home runs. Following a Brown single,
Jordan Faretta made it a 4-0 contest by launching his third homer of the year.
SRU plated two more runs in the fifth inning off of a
Tyler Walters home run and a run-scoring single by Faretta. Pitt-Johnstown got three runs back in the bottom of the frame to cut The Rock's lead to 6-3, but SRU's relentless offense continued to be the aggressors via an RBI-triple from Walters in the sixth and then nine more runs in the seventh to cap off a 13-run win.
The Rock's seventh inning featured three-run home runs by
Jake Nogalo and Brown.
Each of Slippery Rock's first six hitters in the batting order registered multi-hit games. Brown and Faretta both produced matching 4-for-5 efforts with Faretta tallying four RBI off of two doubles and one home run. Urbania and Bell were both 3-for-5 while Nogalo and Walters rounded out the group with two-hit outings.
On the mound, Falascino improved to 3-1 in 2015 by allowing a personal-best three runs over six innings and striking out three Mountain Cats.
James Divosevic threw a perfect seventh inning in relief of Falascino.
GAME TWO: Slippery Rock 12 – Pitt-Johnstown 11For the second time this weekend Slippery Rock entered the seventh inning trailing the Mountain Cats. As was the case in Friday's 13-11 victory, Slippery Rock once again came through when it mattered most with clutch hitting and shutdown pitching to earn a 12-11 win in the nightcap.
The Mountain Cats took an 11-8 advantage into the final inning of the contest where The Rock's comeback started when Faretta, who doubled to leadoff the final frame, scored on a
Ty Zimmerman single.
Slippery Rock went on to load the bases with one out to bring Walters up to the plate, who would patiently earn a walk to score SRU's second run of the inning. Following an Urbania sacrifice fly that brought in Zimmerman, Brown shot a single through the left side of the infield to give Slippery Rock its 12-11 lead going into the bottom of the seventh.
Divosevic would come out of the bullpen to replace
Anton Constantino, and proceed to strand two UPJ base runners to secure the victory. Divosevic has not allowed a run in his last 5.2 innings pitched. His four saves are the ninth most in a single-season in SRU history.
Constantino (4-4) was credited with the win after coming into the game in the fifth inning and throwing 1.1 innings, allowing two runs and two hits while striking out one.
Reigning PSAC-West Pitcher of the Week
Alex Pantuso started the game for SRU and struck out four batters over three innings.
Stephen Mckee and
Zac Anderson served as middle relievers as well in the win.
Urbania, Falascino and Zimmerman all collected two hits in game two. Falascino and Zimmerman hit home runs in the early innings while Kessler hit a crucial three-run double in the fifth inning.
