WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team lost a pair of close low-scoring games to Saint Joseph's College Sunday in doubleheader action in the RussMatt Invitational at the Chain of Lakes Sports Complex.
Slippery Rock (2-10) lost the opener, 2-1, before dropping the nightcap 3-1.
For a second consecutive day, Slippery Rock received great outings from its starting pitchers as
Shawn Holman and
Matt Gordon followed up
Alex Pantuso's and
Jon Anderson's quality starts with strong showings of their own.
Ty Zimmerman led all Slippery Rock batters with three hits and one run scored on the day.
GAME ONE: Saint Joseph's 2 – Slippery Rock 1Holman (0-1) was dominant for the majority of the afternoon. In 6.2 innings he allowed just two runs, only one of which was earned, on six hits and four walks.
After giving up a run in the first inning, Holman went on to throw five straight scoreless innings to keep the Pumas' bats quiet. Over the course of his outing, Holman worked out of a pair of two-on, one-out jams in the third and fourth innings to help keep Slippery Rock in the contest.
While Holman shutdown Saint Joseph's offense, SRU's bats went to work to tie the game in the sixth inning. With one out, Zimmerman laced a single up the middle and proceeded to advance to third base the next at-bat while
Preston Falascino reached base on a throwing error.
Tyler Walters was then intentionally walked to load the bases with just one out. Cleanup hitter
Alex Bell worked out of a one-ball, two-strike hole to draw a walk that forced in Zimmerman from third base to tie the contest at 1-1. However, SJC pitcher Zachary Aring (1-1) managed to force back-to-back fly outs to end the threat and leave the bases loaded.
Saint Joseph's finally broke through on Holman in the seventh when, with two outs and a runner on third base, Jos Handzik hit a single into shallow left field that scored the go-ahead run and forced Holman from the game. Relief pitcher
Andrew Null came on for Holman to record the final out in the seventh.
Aring put any thoughts of a Rock comeback to rest by retiring the side in order in the seventh to give SJC the one-run win.
Zimmerman and Falascino recorded The Rock's only hits in the opener with a pair of 1-for-3 performances.
GAME TWO: Saint Joseph's 3 – Slippery Rock 1Pitchers once again controlled things in game two as Gordon (1-1) and SJC's Quinn Snarskis (2-1) both threw complete games. Gordon had five strikeouts while scattering three runs on five hits and one walk in six innings for his second consecutive quality start.
After managing just two hits in the opener, Slippery Rock rebounded with a seven-hit game in the second contest. Zimmerman went 2-for-4 while the quintet of
Matt Mandes, Walters,
Frankie Jezioro,
James Divosevic and
Mitchell Wood all produced one-hit outings. Mandes also had one RBI.
SRU struck first with a run in the third inning thanks to a single by Mandes that plated Wood, who reached base earlier in the inning with an infield hit. However, Saint Joseph's answered back with three runs over the next four innings to push ahead, 3-1.
Slippery Rock's best chance to cut into the Saint Joseph lead came in the sixth inning when Walters led off the frame with a double followed by a Bell single and a Falascino sacrifice bunt that put runners on second and third with one out, but Snarskis struck out consecutive Rock batters to shutdown the threat. Snarskis closed out the game with three straight outs in the seventh to give SJC the sweep.
Slippery Rock returns to action 3:30 p.m. Monday for a nine-inning game against Ashland University at Lake Myrtle Park in Auburndale, Florida.
