BEL AIR, Md. - The Slippery Rock University baseball team split a doubleheader Monday against Shippensburg University at the Harford College Baseball Field in Bel Air, Maryland. Slippery Rock (1-2) earned 1-0 victory in eight innings in game one before losing game two to Shippensburg (2-4), 15-5.
 
Abraham Mow and Joe Campagna continued their hot starts to the season during the doubleheader with a pair of solid days at the plate. Mow went 4-for-8 with three runs scored, a triple and a home run. Campagna was 3-for-7 with two RBI, a double and a walk.
 
GAME ONE: Slippery Rock 1 – Shippensburg 0 (8 Innings)
Monday's opener was a classic pitchers' duel between The Rock's Tanner Stanz and Shippensburg's Dalton Oates. In the first six innings, Stanz and Oates combined to allow no runs as well as just seven hits and three walks before giving way to their respective bullpens.
 
With the game deadlocked at 0-0, both teams went to their top relievers in the seventh as Wyatt Daugherty (1-0) and Micahel Hope (0-2) each threw scoreless frames to send the game into extra innings.
 
With one out in the top of the eighth, Mow placed a single to center field. Hope briefly fought back to record a strikeout of the next Rock batter, but Campagna salvaged the inning with a double to right field that allowed Mow to score all the way from first base and give The Rock a 1-0 lead before Shippensburg could get out of the inning.
 
The bottom of the eighth belonged strictly to Daugherty who registered two strikeouts with a fly out sandwiched in between to seal the one-run win.
 
Stanz concluded his first start of 2019 with a career-high seven strikeouts while allowing just three hits and two walks over six innings. Daugherty completed the shutout for his sixth career victory out of SRU's bullpen.
 
Mow was 2-for-4 in the opener with Campagna, Tyler Merigliano, Ray Scala and Jon Kozarian all tallying one-hit outings.
 
Oates tossed 10 strikeouts on the mound and Anthony Vavaroustsos reached base twice with a hit and a walk to pace Shippensburg.
 
GAME TWO: Shippensburg 15 – Slippery Rock 5
The Raiders scored runs in five of its six trips to the plate on the way to a 10-run win.
 
Mow led off the nightcap with a triple and quickly scored via a Frankie Jezioro single to give The Rock an early 1-0 advantage. Mow went on to belt a solo home run in the third, but it was no match for Shippensburg which promptly put the game away by notching eight runs over the first three innings to take a 8-2 lead into the fourth inning.
 
The Raiders ended their offensive onslaught by tacking on seven runs between the fifth and sixth innings. Slippery Rock closed the game out with a run in the sixth thanks to a Colin Cain home run, his first collegiate hit, as well as two runs in the seventh by way of run-scoring hits from Jezioro and Campagna that trimmed SRU's final deficit to 15-5.
 
Mow, Jezioro and Campagna, the top three hitters in The Rock's batting order, all had multi-hit contests in game two, combining to go 6-for-10 with two, walks, three runs and four RBI. Scala pushed his hitting streak to three games with a base hit and Cain rounded out The Rock's top hitters with his aforementioned solo home run.
 
Starter Ryan Tapp (0-1) was Slippery Rock's pitcher of record in game two. He lasted 2.1 innings, allowing eight runs, only three of which were earned after three Rock errors, on five hits and three walks.
 
JT Wolke relived Tapp in the third, giving up seven runs on seven hits with two strikeouts through the next 2.2 innings. Ricky Mineo, a local product from Slippery Rock High School, opened his college career by throwing a scoreless inning of relief that included three strikeouts.
 
Jack Goertzen and Justin Darden posted nearly matching stat lines with one home run and four RBI apiece for Shippensburg.
 
Slippery Rock will now shift its focus to a four-game series at Atlantic Region foe West Virginia State. The Rock and Yellow Jackets will play doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday in Institute, West Virginia. First pitch of game one on both days is slated for 12 p.m.
 
 
 
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