ERIE, Pa. – Mercyhurst University completed its series-sweep of the Slippery Rock University baseball team with a pair of wins Saturday in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division play at the MU Baseball Field in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Slippery Rock (6-21, 1-7 PSAC West) dropped the opener to Mercyhurst (16-8, 5-3 PSAC West) 10-0 before falling 11-4 in game two.
The trio of
James Divosevic,
Tyler Walters and
Alex Bell led Slippery Rock in the doubleheader. Divosevic was 3-for-6. Walters went 3-for-6 with two runs, one home run and one RBI. Bell had a 2-for-5, one-home run, one-RBI day.
Walters exits the weekend batting .489 with eight home runs and 33 RBI. Bell, who had his 10-game hitting streak snapped but pushed his reached base streak to 14 games, is batting .361 with six home runs and 23 RBI. Divosevic has five hits in his last 12 at-bats.
GAME ONE: Mercyhurst 10 – Slippery Rock 0Mercyhurst scored eight runs over the third and fourth innings to open up an eight-run lead that SRU was never able to comeback from en route to the Lakers' 10-0 victory.
Slippery Rock's best chances to score came in the first and third innings; SRU put two runners on base in each of the frames, but each time Laker starter Joe Gnaciski (3-1) was able to get out of the jam unscathed.
Divosevic accounted for two of SRU's five hits in game one in a 2-for-4 effort that included one double. Walters,
Matt Mandes and
Mitchell Wood all recorded base hits as well for The Rock while Bell reached base via a walk.
Matt Gordon (3-2) went four innings on the mound for SRU, allowing eight runs on 10 hits while throwing four strikeouts in the loss.
Wyatt Daugherty pitched the final two innings for SRU in relief, surrendering two runs on four hits to go with a season-high three strikeouts.
GAME TWO: Mercyhurst 11 – Slippery Rock 4Slippery Rock improved its offensive output in the nightcap, but a five-run first inning by the Lakers proved too much for SRU to overcome in its 11-4 loss.
Slippery Rock climbed back in the game via a solo home run by
Christian Porterfield in the second inning and an RBI-groundout by
Kyle Wise that plated Walters in the fourth to cut Mercyhurst's lead down to just three runs at 5-2. However, the Lakers rebounded with one run in the bottom of the fourth and four more in the fifth to extend its advantage to 10-2.
SRU added two more runs in the sixth off of back-to-back home runs by Walters and Bell, but Mercyhurst ended any thoughts of a Rock comeback by adding an additional run in the seventh followed by relief pitcher Jake Hall working around a leadoff walk by
Joe Campagna in the seventh to retire three straight Rock batters to close out the 11-4 win.
Walters and Bell posted nearly identical stat lines in game two. Both were 2-for-3 with one home run and one RBI while Walters scored two runs. Porterfield's solo homer and a single by Divosevic rounded out SRU's offensive highlights.
Shawn Holman (0-3) was the pitcher of record for Slippery Rock in game two. He gave up six runs, only two of which were earned, and struck out four batters in four innings.
Stephen McKee had four strikeouts, but allowed five runs in two innings of relief duty.
Slippery Rock returns to action for a four-game series against Indiana (Pa.) April 1-2. SRU will play a doubleheader at IUP 1 p.m. Friday before hosting the Crimson Hawks for two games 1 p.m. Saturday at Jack Critchfield Park.
