BUTLER, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team lost both ends of a twinbill against fourth-ranked Mercyhurst University Sunday afternoon at Kelly Automotive Park in Butler, Pennsylvania. Slippery Rock lost game one of the doubleheader, 4-0, and game two, 3-0.
 
SRU exits the weekend with an overall record of 15-10 and a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division mark of 7-5. Mercyhurst improved to 22-2 overall and 11-1 in league competition win the wins.
 
GAME ONE: Mercyhurst 4 – Slippery Rock 0
As was the case throughout Sunday, pitching dominated the majority of the opener as Rock starter Matt Gordon (2-2) and his counterpart Chris Vallimont (5-1) were nearly unstoppable.
 
Both pitchers threw four scoreless innings to begin the contest before Mercyhurst was finally able to get to Gordon by way of a solo home run off the bat of Matt Schneider with one out in the fifth inning.
 
SRU nearly got the run back in the bottom half of the fifth as a leadoff single by Kyle Wise followed by a sacrifice bunt from Joe Campagana and later a two-out single by Ray Scala gave The Rock runners on first and third. However, Vallimont ended the threat by forcing James Divosevic to groundout to end the inning.
 
The Lakers proceeded to break the game open with three more runs in the sixth inning on consecutive run scoring hits by Drew Delsignore (one RBI) and Dan Elliott (two RBIs).
 
Drew Borowski came on in relief of Vallimont, who had nine strikeouts and three hits allowed in six innings, in the bottom of the seventh and aside from a Mitchell Wood walk was able to navigate around The Rock's lineup to record three outs and give Mercyhurst a 3-0 game-one victory.
 
Gordon scattered six hits and one walk over six innings pitched while also striking out five batters in what was a solid start from the junior. Andrew Null threw an almost spotless seventh inning in relief of Gordon, striking out a pair of Mercyhurst batters and allowing just one hit.
 
Wise, Scala and Christian Porterfield all recorded hits for The Rock. Wood, Porterfield, Divosevic and Tyler Walters each reached base on walks as well.
 
GAME TWO: Mercyhurst 3 – Slippery Rock 0
The Rock's offense fared much better in game two, but a big fifth inning by the Lakers proved too much for SRU to overcome.
 
With the game tied at 0-0 in the fifth inning, Mercyhurst put two runners on base via a Levi Wright walk and a Jimmy Latona single which led to Chris Gonzalez's game-deciding two-run double that was shot down the left field line, barely staying fair. Before reliever Josh Coleman (2-2), who entered the game to start the fifth, was able to get out of the frame the Lakers tacked on an insurance run when Delsignore plated Gonzalez from second with a double of his own.
 
The 3-0 lead was more than enough for Mercyhurst starter Vince Lucente (2-0), who allowed just three Rock batters to reach base following the fourth inning, en route to the 3-0 complete game victory.
 
Carson Kessler and Frankie Jezioro each went 2-for-3 in game two, combining for four of The Rock's eight hits in the contest. Porterfield, Divosevic, Wise and Campagna all had hits as well with Divosevic's coming in the form of a standup triple, his team leading third of the season.
 
The pitching quartet of Trevor Adkins, Wyatt Daugherty, Coleman (2-2) and Divosevic combined to throw 11 strikeouts and allow just six Mercyhurst hits. Adkins got the start and gave way to Daugherty following 1.1 innings of work. Daugherty would strikeout four batters and give up one hit in 2.2 innings pitched before being replaced by Coleman, who also struck out four batters in two innings. Divosevic pitched the seventh inning, fanning a pair of batters sandwiched around what turned out to be a harmless hit and walk.
 
Slippery Rock will step away from its PSAC West schedule to host Mansfield University for a single nine-inning game at Jack Critchfield Park on Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.
 

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