NORTH CANTON, Ohio – The Slippery Rock University baseball team lost a non-conference doubleheader to Walsh University at Biery Field in North Canton, Ohio Wednesday afternoon.
Walsh won game one, 8-2, and rallied back from a four-run deficit in game two to earn a 6-4 victory.The losses drop The Rock's record to 23-17 overall while Walsh improves to 31-15 with the wins.
The NCAA Division II selection committee also released its second set of regional rankings on Wednesday, slotting The Rock eighth in the Atlantic Region. Winners of the PSAC, Mountain East Conference and the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association conference tournaments will all earn automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament while the four highest ranked non-championship teams in the final batch of regional rankings, which will be released on May 14, will receive at-large berths into the national tournament.
Game One: Walsh 8 – Slippery Rock 2
The Cavileers scored four runs over the first four innings with a pair of two-run innings in the first and fourth on the way to its 8-2 win in the opener.
Trailing 4-0, Slippery Rock cut Walsh's lead in half in the sixth inning when
James Divosevic and
Luca Fuscardo produced back-to-back RBI at-bats, but any hopes for a comeback were ended in the bottom half of the inning as Walsh scored four runs on six hits and two errors to push its lead out to 8-2.
Christian Porterfield drew a leadoff walk in the seventh inning, but Walsh relief pitcher Justin Hovorka proceeded to record three consecutive outs to seal the Cavileers' six-run victory.
Austin Szink went 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBI to lead the Walsh offense. Nick Bebout (2-1), Frank Frate and Hovorka combined to throw a three-hitter against The Rock with Bebout also striking out five batters in four innings of work.
Matt Mandes supplied two of The Rock's three hits in the opener, going 2-for-2 with one run scored and one double. Divosevic had SRU's other hit in addition to an RBI.
Mitchell Wood walked once and scored one run as well.
Andrew Null (0-2) got the start on the mound for Slippery Rock. He allowed four runs on five hits and four walks over 3.2 innings.
Jay Cortese pitched 1.1 innings in relief, surrendering two runs on three hits and two walks.
Donald Colucci Jr. finished the contest for SRU by giving up two runs on four hits in the sixth inning.
GAME TWO: Walsh 6 – Slippery Rock 4
Slippery Rock seemed poised to salvage the day by taking game two from the Cavileers and earning a doubleheader split, but six unanswered runs by Walsh resulted in a 6-4 loss for The Rock.
Tyler Walters went 1-for-4 with one home run, two RBI and one run scored in game two. He enters the final weekend of the regular season ranked second in the PSAC in RBI with 49 and third in the league in home runs with nine.
Joe Campagna was 2-for-3 with one RBI. Fuscardo went 2-for-4 with one run scored. Porterfield and
Kyle Wise rounded out SRU's top performers with matching 1-for-2, one-run, one-walk outings.
Pitcher
Trevor Adkins received a no-decision in his sixth start of the season. The freshman scattered two runs and six hits over three innings pitched.
Chris Anastas came on for Adkins after a leadoff home run in the fourth inning by Szink and proceeded to record three outs, but not before Walsh scored an additonal unearned run.
Reliever
Josh Coleman (2-4) was the pitcher of record for The Rock in the nightcap, he surrendered three runs over two-thirds of an inning.
Wyatt Daugherty, who was brought in for Coleman in the sixth, finished the game by holding Walsh scoreless over the game's final 1.1 innings to lower his season ERA to 2.33.
It took just one inning in game two for Slippery Rock to exceed its entire output from the opener.
With Fuscardo already on base after a single in the game's second at-bat, Walters connected on a home run to right field for The Rock's first two runs of the contest. Porterfield followed Walters with a single and advanced to second on a Wise walk before scoring on a single by Campagna. Wise eventually scored on a passed ball to give The Rock a 4-0 lead after a half inning of play.
However, the early offensive onslaught was virtually all the offense that SRU could produce as the Walsh relief pitching trio of Luke Miller (1-0), Joey Beals and Ryan McSweeney held The Rock to just three hits and no runs over the game's final six innings.
With SRU's bats quieted, Walsh chipped away at The Rock's advantage with one run in the second inning and two more in the fourth to trim Slippery Rock's lead down to just one run at 4-3. The Cavaliers completed their comeback with three runs in the fifth to take a 6-4 lead that they would never relinquish.
Slippery Rock will conclude its regular season with a key four-game series against Seton Hill starting with a home doubleheader on Friday. First pitch of game one at Jack Critchfield Park is scheduled for 1 p.m. Slippery Rock can clinch a PSAC Tournament berth with one win against Seton Hill.
To stay up to date with all that happens at The Rock, follow our official athletic communication accounts on Twitter (@Rock_Athletics), Facebook (RockAthletics), Instagram (RockAthletics) and Snapchat (@RockAthletics).
