AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team lost to Ashland University, 16-7, Friday afternoon in its 11th game at the RussMatt Invitational in Auburndale, Florida.
 
Friday's game was the second between Slippery Rock (5-13) and Ashland (7-5) this season; SRU defeated Ashland 7-3 on March 7.
 
The Golden Eagles jumped out to an early 6-0 lead and never looked back before Slippery Rock eventually cut the Ashland lead down to as little as three runs at 8-5 through five innings of play. However, AU scored five runs in the sixth inning to open up an eight-run lead en route to its 16-7 victory.
 
Slippery Rock was led on the day by Ty Zimmerman, Alex Bell and Kyle Wise. Zimmerman and Wise both hit solo home runs while Bell drove in a pair of runs and totaled two hits. Wise's and Zimmerman's homers were the first for each player this season.
 
Tyler Walters, Frankie Jexioro and Logan Brown all had multi-hit games as well with Brown recording one RBI and Jezioro stealing one base. Brown, who started at designated hitter for The Rock, was making his first hitting appearances of the year.
 
Shawn Holman (0-2) pitched 3.1 innings, allowing seven runs on six hits and two walks. Andrew Null and Wyatt Daugherty each threw 2.1 innings in relief and Josh Coleman closed out the game with a scoreless ninth inning. Null and Daugherty gave up a combined nine runs, but only three were earned. Just seven of Ashland's 16 total runs on the day were earned as SRU committed six costly errors.
 
Mackenzie Hampshire was 3-for-5 with five RBI while Chris Slavik had seven strikeouts over five innings to pace Ashland.
 
Slippery Rock will play its 11th and final game at the RussMatt Invitational 9 a.m. Saturday against Grand Valley State at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex