JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Facing elimination from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Tournament, the Slippery Rock University baseball team scored 12 run over its final two innings to defeat No. 19 West Chester University, 14-4, Thursday afternoon at Point Stadium in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
 
SRU will now play the loser of Thursday's game between Seton Hill University and Bloomsburg University on Friday at 9:30 a.m. in an elimination game. If SRU wins its Friday morning contest it will come back for another elimination game Friday afternoon at 3:30 p.m.
 
Slippery Rock trailed the Golden Rams 4-2 heading into the bottom of the seventh when Tyler Walters crushed a grand slam that spurred a 12-run SRU rally to eliminate West Chester, the top seed in the PSAC East, from the tournament.
 
The win was a big one on a variety of fronts for The Rock. In addition to keeping its conference championship hopes alive, Thursday's victory gives Slippery Rock a key Atlantic Region win. West Chester came into the game as the top ranked team in the region while SRU was slotted seventh.
 
The conference tournament champions from the PSAC and Mountain East Conference along with the next five ranked teams in the region qualify for the NCAA Tournament. The 2018 NCAA Tournament field will be announced on Sunday.
 
Walters ended the day with five RBI, one home run and two runs scored. The PSAC West Athlete of the Year now has two home runs and eight RBI in two games at the PSAC Tournament. On the year, Walters leads the conference with 15 home runs to go with a team-best 50 RBI.
 
Luca Fuscardo turned in a 4-for-5, two-run, one-RBI effort, Joe Campagna hit a three-run home run, Christian Porterfield had two RBI and leadoff hitter Abraham Mow scored three runs to help lead The Rock.
 
Mitchell Wood, Frankie Jezioro and Kyle Wise all had productive games as well. Wood and Jezioro tallied two hits each and Wise drove in one run.
 
On the mound, Matt Gordon displayed why he was a first team All-PSAC pitcher. He gave Slippery Rock six quality innings, allowing three runs on eight hits while striking out a career-high matching eight batters.
 
Tanner Stanz (3-2) earned the win after holding West Chester to one run in his lone inning of relief work. Wyatt Daugherty picked up his ninth save of the year with a perfect inning out of The Rock's bullpen. While SRU ended up winning by 10 runs, Daugherty entered the game when it was just a two-run contest thus making him eligible for the save. The nine saves are a single-season Rock record.
 
West Chester struck first on an RBI-single by PSAC East Athlete of the Year Jared Melone in the first inning. Slippery Rock answered back in the second inning when Wood, who hit a two-out single, scored on a Jezioro single and a Golden Ram fielding error.
 
Following WCU's first-inning run, Gordon settled in to throw four straight scoreless innings. He retired 10 of the Golden Rams' next 13 batters from the end of the second through the fifth inning.
 
However, West Chester was able to get to Gordon in the sixth for two runs after the Golden Rams put their first two runners on base followed by a sacrifice fly by Christian Bateman and a RBI-single by Kyle Irwin to give WCU a 3-1 advantage before Gordon could get out of the frame.
 
Mow reached base on a walk to start the bottom of the sixth and proceeded to move to second via a wild pitch to give The Rock a runner in scoring position with no outs. Fuscardo then shot a long single to left field that allowed Mow to reach third before scoring on another WCU fielding error.
 
West Chester added an additional run in the seventh before Slippery Rock loaded the bases with an out in the bottom of the frame for Walters, who crushed a pitch down the left field line for his first career grand slam, giving The Rock a 6-4 lead.
 
Walters' grand slam sparked The Rock's high-powered offense. After a perfect inning of relief from Daugherty, SRU came out and posted eight runs in the eighth inning to earn the run-rule victory. Campagna ended the contest when he placed a ball over the wall in left field with two runners on. The home run was his seventh of 2018.
 
With the win, Slippery Rock's record improves to 30-18. West Chester ends its time at the PSAC Tournament with an overall record of 31-15. The Rock has now won at least 30 games in a season 11 times since 2000.
 
 
 
 
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