CARY, N.C. - The Slippery Rock University baseball team couldn't overcome an early four-run deficit in an eventual 10-5 loss to Dominican College (N.Y.) Wednesday at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina.
 
The loss drops The Rock's record to 5-5 on the year overall while Dominican improves to 6-4 in 2019 with the win, which was its fourth consecutive victory.
 
As a team, The Rock recorded 10 hits with Kyle Bowser leading the way on a 3-for-4, one-run performance. The three-hit game was the first of Bowser's career. Mike Collins and Tyler Merigliano were both 2-for-4 as well with both of Collins' hits being doubles. Collins also drove in a pair of runs while Merigliano chipped in one RBI as well.
 
Ray Scala, Joe Campagna and Jon Kozarian accounted for The Rock's remaining three hits. Scala, who has reached base in all 10 Rock games this season, scored a pair of runs. Campagna's hit was his Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-best eighth double of the season, which extended his hitting streak to 10 games.
 
Freshman Colin Cain (1-1) made his first collegiate start as a pitcher Wednesday. He gave up four runs on six hits and two walks over 1.1 innings. Jaret Peterson came on to throw the majority of the game for SRU as he finished the day after pitching five innings and allowing five runs on seven hits to go with four strikeouts. Joe Dombrowski logged 2.2 innings of work as well, limiting Dominican to one run over the final stages of the game.
 
Slippery Rock trailed 4-0 entering the third inning before cutting its deficit in half with a pair of runs in the frame via a two-run hit by Scala. However, the Chargers went on to get the two runs back with scores in the fourth and fifth innings to maintain a four-run advantage.
 
Slippery Rock added two more runs in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a two-run double by Collins, but Dominican ended any hopes of an SRU rally with four runs in the seventh inning to stretch its lead to 10-4. The Rock added a final run in the seventh via a sacrifice fly from Merigliano that plated Scala, but could never seriously threaten Dominican's sizable lead en route to the 10-5 defeat.  
 
Dominican's John-Mike Broderick (1-1) scattered four runs on nine hits over six innings to pick up the win. Nick Bolanos held SRU to one hit and one unearned run to record a three-inning save out of the Chargers' bullpen once Broderick's day was done. Max Chidsey drove in four runs and stole three bases to pace the Chargers' offense.
 
Slippery Rock will conclude its time at USA Baseball National Training Complex when it plays a final game against Franklin Pierce 11 a.m. Thursday. SRU is 2-0 against Franklin Pierce so far this season.
 
 
 
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).