AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team began its time at the RussMatt Invitational with a doubleheader loss to Northwood University Saturday afternoon at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex.
Slippery Rock was either tied or leading as late as the seventh inning in both contests, but Northwood was able to score three unanswered runs in the seventh inning of game one for a 6-5 victory and rattle off 10 runs in the eighth inning of game two to complete the sweep with a 12-7 win in extra innings.
SRU (2-8) received solid performances from starting pitchers
Alex Pantuso (0-0) and
Jon Anderson (1-1). Pantuso gave up just three runs, only one earned, on six hits and four walks over 4.2 innings in the opener while Anderson (1-1) allowed just one run over five innings on an efficient 72 pitches.
Leading Slippery Rock's offense Saturday was the trio of
Tyler Walters,
Ty Zimmerman and
Preston Falascino.
Walters combined over the two games to go 3-for-7 with three runs, two RBI, one home run and one double. The home run was Walters' fifth of the season and 18th of his career, the 10th most by a player in program history.
Zimmerman and Falascino both recorded hits in each game with Zimmerman scoring three runs and driving in three more thanks in part to a double and a triple. Falascino concluded the afternoon with thee RBI and one run scored.
GAME ONE: Northwood 6 – Slippery Rock 5Northwood, which competes in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, scored runs in each of the first two innings to take a 2-0 lead into the third before a two-run homer by Walters briefly evened the contest. Walters' shot brought home Zimmerman, who reached base on a fielders choice earlier in the inning.
However, Northwood quickly retook the lead in the bottom half of the inning thanks to a Tanner McCarn RBI-double. The SRU pitching combination of Pantuso and relief pitcher
Stephen McKee (0-3) proceeded to throw three scoreless innings only to be countered by three scoreless frames from Northwood starter Larry Wood.
The Rock's bats came alive in the seventh to produce three runs off of RBI-hits from Zimmerman,
Alex Bell and Falascino to send the game into the bottom of the seventh with Slippery Rock leading 5-3. McKee quickly got the first two outs of the inning with a strikeout and a forced groundout, but Northwood stayed alive with a walk and a single to put the game-winning run at the plate.
A fielding error would then load the bases, leading to a two-run single by Dustin Lee to tie the game. Cody Kuzniczci then came to the plate and promptly hit a walk-off single on the first pitch he saw to plate Nate Boschma and give Northwood the win.
Walters was 2-for-3 with two runs, two RBI and one home run in the opener. Bell went 3-for-4 with one RBI.
GAME TWO: Northwood 12 – Slippery Rock 7 (Eight innings)Northwood once again struck first with a run in the first inning of game two, but a two-run triple by Zimmerman in the third scored
Ray Scala and
Kyle Wise to give The Rock a 2-1 advantage.
Anderson maintained The Rock's one-run lead with two more scoreless innings before making his exit after five innings of work. However, Northwood was once again able to comeback with one run in the sixth to make it a 2-2 contest.
Slippery Rock threatened in both the sixth and seventh innings, but was ultimately unable to push across the go-ahead run.
James Divosevic rebounded from allowing the game-tying run in the sixth by registering four straight outs to help force extra innings.
Three consecutive batters reached base to leadoff the eighth inning for Northwood before relief pitcher
Jay Cortese (0-1) traded a Northwood run for a double play. However, the 3-2 Northwood lead quickly grew to 10 runs at 12-2 as NU pulled off an incredible two-out rally that included six hits and four wild pitches. Slippery Rock answered back with five runs of its own in the bottom of the frame, but it wasn't enough as Northwood took the night cap 12-7 in eight innings.
Cortese was the pitcher of record for SRU after giving up five runs on five hits in the eighth.
Josh Coleman also had a tough outing with five runs surrendered after coming in for Cortese.
Devon LaBarre recorded the final out of the game for The Rock.
Matt Mandes had two hits for Slippery Rock in game two. Zimmerman and Falascino both drove in two runs on one hit apiece as well. Walters, Wise and Scala tallied the other three hits for The Rock.
Slippery Rock will look to rebound from the doubleheader sweep with a pair of wins Sunday against Saint Joseph's College. First pitch of game one from Chain Of Lakes Park in Winter Haven, Florida is scheduled for 2 p.m.
