SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team split a non-conference doubleheader against Bloomsburg University Tuesday afternoon at Jack Crtichfield Park in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania.
 
SRU lost the opener to the Huskies, 14-6 in nine innings, but rebounded from the extra-inning defeat with a 5-4 win in game two. The split moves The Rock's record to 18-13 overall. Bloomsburg is now 20-16-1 in 2017.
 
Frankie Jezioro was a perfect 3-for-3 on the day with two runs scored, two RBI, one walk, a triple and a stolen base, his team-leading eighth of the season.
 
Luca Fuscardo collected two hits in both games, finishing the day 4-for-9 with two runs, one RBI and two doubles. James Divosevic was 3-for-8 with two runs, three RBI and his first home run of the season. Joe Campagna also collected hits in both ends of the doubleheader, going 3-for-7 with one RBI and one double.
 
GAME ONE: Bloomsburg 14 – Slippery Rock 6
Slippery Rock led for the first six innings of game one, but a late Bloomsburg rally forced extra innings in an eventual eight-run win for the Huskies.
 
SRU struck first with a pair of runs in the first inning, including an RBI-single by Tyler Walters before Bloomsburg cut into The Rock's lead with a run in the second. Walters eventually got the run back in the third when he sailed a solo home run over the left field wall to put Slippery Rock up 3-1. The home run was his team-leading sixth of the year and the 31st of his career, the second most in program history.
 
Bloomsburg once again answered back with one run in the fourth inning to narrow The Rock's lead to 3-2. Relief pitcher Trevor Adkins entered the game for starter Jay Cortese in the fifth and kept SRU's lead intact with two scoreless innings to send the game into the seventh with Slippery Rock leading by one run.
 
The Huskies scored three runs in the seventh off of SRU reliever Andrew Null to take its first lead of the game at 5-3. Not to be out done, Slippery Rock responded with a pair of runs of its own in the bottom half of the frame.
 
Following a leadoff single by Mitchell Wood, Jezioro belted a run-scoring triple and then promptly scored on a fielding error by Bloomsburg off of a ball hit by Divosevic, which tied the game and gave SRU a runner on second base with no outs. However, Slippery Rock was unable to come up with the game-winning run as the contest headed to extra innings.
 
Both teams traded runs in the eighth inning with Bloomsburg scoring off of relief pitcher Alex Worthington and SRU producing a run against Jeremy Zezza when Campagna produced a double that scored Carson Kessler, who reached base on a single earlier in the inning.
 
However, everything that could go wrong did go wrong for SRU in the ninth inning as Bloomsburg sent 14 batters to the plate and scored eight runs en route to its 14-6 win.
 
Divosevic, Fuscardo, Walters, Kessler and Campagna all registered two-hit games in the loss with Walters driving in a pair of runs to go with one home run.
 
In his second start of the season, Cortese scattered two runs, four hits and three walks over four innings. Adkins threw two perfect innings with Null, Worthington (0-1) and Donald Colucci Jr. combining to pitch the final three innings.
 
GAME TWO: Slippery Rock 5 – Bloomsburg 4
Slippery Rock once again jumped out to an early lead against Bloomsburg in the nightcap before another Huskie rally put the game in doubt, but SRU was ultimately able to to earn the win in game two and avoid the doubleheader sweep.
 
Starting pitcher Tyler Markovic (1-2) was solid for The Rock in what his first appearance since March 4. Bloomsburg put runners on base in five of the first six innings, but Markovic was able to consistently work out of trouble as he held the Huskies scoreless through five innings. While he did walk two batters and hit four more, Markovic did not allow a hit until the sixth inning.
 
With Markovic keeping the Bloomsburg offense silent, Slippery Rock's bats went to work starting in the second inning when Campagna hit a sacrifice fly that plated Jezioro followed by a three-run fifth inning that featured a two-run home run by Divosevic and an RBI-walk with the bases loaded by Jezioro to give SRU a seemingly safe 4-0 lead.
 
Bloomsburg finally got to Markovic when with one out in the sixth inning Ryan Shiffer crushed a home run to left field for the Huskies' first hit of the game. The Rock responded in the bottom of the sixth by way of an RBI-single from Fuscardo that stretched SRU's lead back out to four runs at 5-1 entering the final inning of regulation.
 
Adkins, who made his second appearance of the day when he came in for Markovic in the sixth, struck out the first batter of the seventh, but then gave up a single and a double in back-to-back at-bats to put the game-tying run in the on-deck circle. Preston Falascino entered the game following Adkins' second hit allowed, but he too had trouble against an aggressive Bloomsburg lineup as Daniel Muth shot a three-run home run to left field to cut The Rock's lead down to one run.
 
However, unlike game one, there would be no comeback as Falascino regrouped after the Muth home run to strikeout two Bloomsburg batters with a single sandwiched in between to ensure a 5-4 win for The Rock.
 
Markovic picked up the win after giving up just two hits and one run over 5.1 innings.
 
Fuscardo and Jezioro combined for four of The Rock's eight hits in game two while Divosevic had one hit as well; his two-run homer. Tyler Merigliano reached base three times with a trio of walks.
 
Slippery Rock returns to Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division competition this weekend with a four-game series against California (Pa.). SRU will host the Vulcans for a doubleheader on Friday before traveling to play at California on Saturday. First pitch of game one on both days is scheduled for 1 p.m.



 
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