ERIE, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team came out on the wrong side of a doubleheader sweep against Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division foe Gannon University Saturday afternoon at the McConnell Family Field in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Slippery Rock (8-29, 3-15 PSAC West) lost to Gannon (24-11, 12-6 PSAC West) 11-3 in game one before falling 2-0 in the nightcap.
James Divosevic and
Alex Bell combined for four of The Rock's nine hits in the doubleheader with two hits each.
GAME ONE: Gannon 11 – Slippery Rock 3Gannon scored nine unanswered runs over the first four innings of game one en route to its 11-3 win in the opener.
Slippery Rock broke the shutout in the top of the fifth inning off of a two-out, two-run single by Divosevic with the bases loaded that plated
Preston Falascino and
Matt Mandes. The Rock's final run of the contest came in the seventh when
Ray Scala scored from third on a Rock double play groundout.
SRU finished the game with six hits and six walks, but left runners on base to end an inning on five occasions.
Divosevic accounted for two of Slippery Rock's six hits in addition to walking twice. Falascino, Bell,
Ty Zimmerman and
Tyler Walters collected one hit each. Falascino, Mandes and Scala were responsible for Slippery Rock's three runs scored.
Jon Anderson (2-6) allowed nine runs on 14 hits in 3.1 innings in the loss.
Stephen McKee (four hits, two runs allowed) came on for Anderson in the fourth to pitch 1.2 innings in relief.
Wyatt Daugherty tossed a scoreless sixth inning after coming in for McKee.
GAME TWO: Gannon 2 – Slippery Rock 0The nightcap was a pitchers duel between starters
Alex Pantuso (1-5) and David Cricks. Both hurlers were dominant through much of the game. Pantuso allowed just three hits and navigated around five walks while striking out three to hold the Golden Knights scoreless over the first five innings of play.
However, Gannon was finally able to breakthrough in the sixth inning. Pantuso registered his fourth strikeout of the day to start the inning, but proceeded to surrender a single and two walks to go with a pair of wild pitches to load the bases. SRU then made a pitching change, bringing
Andrew Null on in place of Pantuso.
Gannon's Nick Restuccia managed to draw a walk off of Null to bring one run in and break the scoreless tie. John Davis later brought GU's second run home with a sacrifice fly before Null was able to get out of the jam.
Despite just three hits in game two, Slippery Rock did have a couple of solid scoring opportunities.
Joe Campagna and
Jordan Faretta reached base via a walk and fielding error to start the third inning. Bell and Walters got on in the fourth with a walk and single, respectively. Ultimately though, Cricks was able to get out of both innings unharmed to maintain his shutout.
Nico DiaPolo relieved Cricks in the seventh and earned the save in GU's 2-0 win despite giving up hits to Campagna and
Christian Porterfield.
Slippery Rock and Gannon will conclude its series with a doubleheader Monday at Jack Critchfield Park. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.
