SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team took sole possession of second place in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division standings with a doubleheader sweep of Indiana (Pa.) Friday afternoon at Jack Critchfield Park in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania.
Slippery Rock cruised to a 7-1 victory in game one before hanging on for a 4-3 victory in game two. SRU improved its record to 17-10 overall and 9-5 in the conference play with the sweep while Indiana dropped to 11-17 overall and 7-7 in league competition.
Matt Mandes had a quality day at the plate, going a combined 1-for-3 with four runs scored, four RBI, one home run and three walks.
Luca Fuscardo and
Joe Campagna were both 3-for-5 over the doubleheader with Fuscardo driving in three runs and Campagna scoring three times.
Tyler Walters rounded out The Rock's top performers over the two games with three RBI.
GAME ONE: Slippery Rock 7 – Indiana (Pa.) 1
As has been the case for the majority of the season, Rock starting pitcher
Alex Pantuso was dominant on the mound in SRU's 7-1 series-opening win.
Pantuso, who entered the game ranked fourth in the nation in strikeouts per nine innings, tallied eight more strikeouts while scattering five hits and a season-low two walks over seven innings in his first complete game of the season.
While Pantuso, who struck out five IUP batters over three shutout innings to start the game, was in firm control on the mound early on it took Slippery Rock's offense until the third inning to come alive.
With Campagna and Mandes already both on base in the bottom of the third,
James Divosevic ripped a hard hit groundball to second base that IUP's Ted DeSanti was unable to handle, allowing Campagna to score from second base and Mandes to advance to third base. Fuscardo and Wlaters proceeded to produce matching run-scoring singles to give The Rock a 3-0 lead.
Indiana managed to shave one run off The Rock's lead in the fourth inning when Matt Eperesi connected on an RBI-single that plated Wes Carson, who led off the frame with a single and later stole second base. However, IUP would not seriously threaten the rest of the game as Pantuso effectively shut down the Crimson Hawks' offense by allowing just two baserunners over the final three innings.
Walters pushed The Rock's lead to 4-1 in the fifth when he launched a fly ball to deep left field, coming just short of a home run, to plate Mandes, who walked to lead off the inning before advancing to third on a Fuscardo single and a wild pitch, from third base on a sacrifice fly. Mandes put the finishing touches on the victory in the sixth inning when he sent a 1-1 pitch over the right field wall with two runners on base for his first career home run.
Mandes concluded the opener 1-for-1 with two walks, three runs scored, three RBI and one home run. Walters was 1-for-3 with two RBI and Fuscardo was 2-for-3 with one RBI as well. Divosevic,
Kyle Wise and
Mitchell Wood all recorded one hit apiece.
Pantuso improved to 3-1 with the win. Opponents are now hitting just .164 against him on the season. Additionally, his 59 strikeouts rank second among all PSAC pitchers. Nick Kuhn (0-1) gave up eight hits and seven runs over 5.2 innings for Indiana in the loss.
GAME TWO: Slippery Rock 4 – Indiana (Pa.) 3
Slippery Rock received another outstanding pitching performance in game two as it withstood a late IUP surge to claim a 4-3 victory.
SRU did all of its scoring in the second inning as The Rock loaded the bases with no outs before Mandes battled back from an 0-2 count to walk and bring the game's first run across the plate. Two batters later, Fuscardo came through with a two-run single followed by Walters capping off the inning with another sacrifice fly to centerfield to give The Rock a 4-0 edge.
The four runs were more than enough for Rock starter
Matt Gordon (3-2), who didn't surrender a hit until the third inning and would eventually throw five shutout innings before IUP was able to get to him for two runs in the sixth inning by way of a Dan Sepic two-run home run. Gordon bounced back from the blast to get out of the inning and record one out in the seventh inning before leaving the game for
Josh Coleman with runners on first and second.
After allowing an RBI-single by Nate Dickey that cut The Rock's lead to 4-3, Coleman tallied the inning's second out by retiring Cory Wheeler on strikes.
Wyatt Daugherty was then inserted into the game to face Sepic with the game-tying run on second. Sepic was unable to replicate his sixth-inning success as Daugherty forced the slugger to fly out to left field, giving The Rock a 4-3 victory. The win was SRU's ninth one-run win of the season.
Gordon earned his third win of the year after scattering six hits and three runs over 6.1 innings of work while also striking out a career-high eight batters. Daugherty picked up his second save of the season. IUP's Colin Clause (1-5) gave up four runs on four hits and three walks in five innings in the loss.
Wood accounted for two of The Rock's four hits in the contest with a 2-for-3, one-run performance. Fuscardo and Campagna were responsible for The Rock's other two hits in the contest.
Slippery Rock and the Crimson Hawks will conclude their four-game series with a doubleheader at IUP Saturday. First pitch of game one is scheduled for 1 p.m.
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