BUTLER, Pa. - The Slippery Rock University baseball team swept Clarion University in a doubleheader Sunday at Michelle Krill Field to earn a four-game Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division series split with the Golden Eagles.
 
Slippery Rock (10-15, 3-9 PSAC West) received a dominant pitching performance from Wyatt Daugherty to help claim a 5-0 win in the opener before rallying back from a three-run deficit for a 6-4 victory in game two.
 
SRU hit six home runs over Sunday's doubleheader. Leadoff hitter Frankie Jezioro accounted for three of the bombs while Joe Campagna belted two of his own with Colin Cain rounding out the power surge with one home run.
 
Jezioro went 4-for-7 on the day with three runs scored, three RBI and his aforementioned three home runs. He will exit the weekend on a 15-game hitting streak and having already hit a career-high matching six home runs.
 
Cain, just a freshman, was 4-for-6 over the doubleheader with one run scored, three RBI, a double and a home run.
 
Campagna pushed his reached base streak to an impressive 25 games after going 3-for-7 over the doubleheader with three runs scored, three RBI and two home runs. Campagna has now hit home runs in three of The Rock's last four games.
 
GAME ONE: Slippery Rock 5 – Clarion 0
Daugherty shutdown the Clarion offense for seven straight innings while The Rock slugged four home runs on the way to a 5-0 victory in game one.
 
In what was just his third collegiate start, Daugherty (3-2) yielded just five hits, surrendered no walks and threw six strikeouts on the way to a complete game shutout victory. He did not allow more than one Clarion runner on the base paths at the same time during any point of Sunday's win.
 
With Daugherty in firm control on the mound, The Rock's bats went to work quickly on getting a lead. Jezioro led off the game with a home run followed later in the opening inning by Campagna's first homer of the day.
 
Slippery Rock expanded on its early lead in the second inning via a Cain home run. The Rock pushed the lead out to 4-0 in the third by way of an RBI-double from Abraham Mow that plated Jon Kozarian.
 
SRU produced its final run of the contest when Jezioro led off the fifth inning with another solo home run. The lead was more than enough for Daugherty, who gave up just two hits over the final three innings en route to the win.
 
Slippery Rock produced eight hits in the opener. Jezioro, Kozarian and Cain accounted for two hits apiece with Jezioro recording his second career multi-home run game. Campagna and Mow accounted for The Rock's remaining hits.
 
GAME TWO: Slippery Rock 6 – Clarion 4
Clarion appeared poised to take game two, and thus earn a 3-1 series victory against SRU, before a six-run rally by The Rock over the final two innings resulted in a 6-4 victory for Slippery Rock.
 
Trailing 3-0 after five innings, Slippery Rock came alive to score three runs in the sixth to tie the game followed by three more runs in the seventh.
 
Tyler Merigliano started the rally with a one-out, run-scoring single in the sixth. Slippery Rock went on to score two more times in the frame when Cain shot a two-run double down the right field line to even the contest at 3-3.
 
Following a perfect inning of relief by Alex Worthington, Slippery Rock came to bat in the seventh and picked up right where it left off as Jezioro and Campagna both blasted home runs, with Campagna's being a two-run shot, to give SRU a commanding 6-3 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh.
 
Clarion managed to get one run back in the game's final half inning and even put runners on second and third with two outs, but Worthington worked himself out of the jam by forcing Brian Casper to groundout to third base to give SRU a much-needed 6-4 win.
 
JT Wolke (1-0) made his first start of the season for The Rock on the mound. He produced five solid innings by scattering three runs on eight hits and one walk. Worthington (1-1) pitched the final two innings, giving up one run and registering four strikeouts to pick up his first win of 2019.
 
As was the case in game one, Slippery Rock once again went for eight hits in the nightcap as the quartet of Jezioro, Campagna, Cain and Merigliano tallied two hits each.
 
Slippery Rock will host Mansfield University in a non-conference doubleheader April 9 at Jack Critchfield Park. First pitch of game one is set for 1 p.m.
 


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