INDIANA, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team split a doubleheader with Indiana (Pa.) Friday afternoon at Dougherty Field in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division play.
Slippery Rock (7-22, 2-8 PSAC West) dropped the opener, 13-11, before rebounding with a 13-3 win over Indiana (11-16, 4-6 PSAC West) in game two.
SRU produced 28 hits over the doubleheader.
Frankie Jezioro led The Rock's bats by going a combined 5-for-7 with four runs scored, six RBI and two home runs. The speedy centerfielder now has four home runs on the season.
Mitchell Wood also came away with a solid performance from the bottom of The Rock's batting order, going 4-for-7 with three runs, two RBI and one home run in the doubleheader.
As has been the case the entire season, Slippery Rock received excellent efforts from
Ty Zimmerman,
Tyler Walters and
Alex Bell.
In two games, Zimmerman, The Rock's leadoff hitter, had four hits, five runs, four RBI and one home run. Walters continued his bid for PSAC West Player of the Year honors with three hits, two runs, four RBI and one home run. Walters now has a team-high nine home runs and a .475 batting average. Bell extended his reached base streak to 16 games with hits in both games in addition to four RBI and one run scored.
GAME ONE: Indiana 13 – Slippery Rock 11The Crimson Hawks jumped out to an early 2-0 lead thanks to a two-run triple by Rick Jones with two outs in the bottom of the first. Slippery Rock quickly responded with four runs in the second; Jezioro got the rally going with a three-run shot over the right field wall followed by a solo homer by Wood.
However, the advantage was short-lived as Hunter Bigler gave IUP the lead back with a three-run home run of his own in the bottom of the frame to push the Crimson Hawks ahead 5-4.
IUP went on to score seven of the game's next runs to take a 12-5 lead after five innings of play. Slippery Rock scored six runs over the sixth and seventh innings, but was unable to ever seriously threaten the Crimson Hawks' lead as IUP came away with a 13-11 win after scoring one run in the sixth to go with its early scoring barrage.
Offensively, Jezioro had the best game of his young career with a 3-for-4, two-run, two-home run, five-RBI outing.
Logan Brown also had three hits to go with one RBI while Walters,
James Divosevic and Wood all had two hits as well. Walters produced one home run and three RBI in the opener.
Jon Anderson (2-4) gave up 12 runs, eight of which were earned, on nine hits and four walks over 3.1 innings in the loss.
Andrew Null came on for Anderson to supply SRU with 2.2 innings of quality relief pitching; he gave up just two hits and one run while tossing two strikeouts.
GAME TWO: Slippery Rock 13 – Indiana 3Slippery Rock scored 10 runs in the first three innings while
Alex Pantuso (1-3) shutdown the Indiana offense with a complete-game four-hitter to earn the doubleheader split in game two.
An RBI-triple by Walters plated Zimmerman in the first inning followed by four runs in the second and five more in the third to give SRU its best start to a game of the year. Meanwhile, Pantuso worked around a second inning in which IUP scored three runs to keep IUP's hitters in check and give The Rock a commanding 10-3 lead through three innings of play.
SRU added a run in the fourth on an RBI-single by Zimmerman and two more scores in the seventh via a two-run home run by Zimmerman en route to the dominating win.
While Slippery Rock's offense erupted for one of its best outputs of the season, Pantuso gave up just one hit and two walks after the second inning to silence Indiana's bats and earn his first win of the season. The complete game was Pantuso's first of the year and his seven strikeouts were a personal-best since fanning 11 in his second start of the year against St. Thomas Aquinas on Feb. 27.
Slippery Rock followed up its 15-hit performance in game one with 13 more hits in the nightcap. Zimmerman led the way with a 3-for-4, four-run, four-RBI, one-home run performance from his spot atop The Rock's batting order.
Bell had two hits and four RBI. Jezioro continued his hot streak with two more hits. Wood matched Jezioro with two hits of his own.
Kyle Wise also drove in a pair of runs on a 1-for-4 day that included two runs scored.
Slippery Rock will host Indiana for a doubleheader Saturday at Jack Critchfield Park on Pediatric Cancere Day. First pitch of game one is slated for 1 p.m.
