DUNBAR, W. Va. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team closed out the opening weekend of its 2020 season with an impressive doubleheader sweep Sunday against West Virginia State at the Shawnee Sports Complex in Dunbar, West Virginia.
 
SRU (3-1) opened the day with a 6-2 victory in game one followed by an 8-7 victory in game two. Sunday's sweep also gave The Rock the series win as SRU took three of the four games over the weekend from West Virginia State (2-9).
 
Slippery Rock was led on the day offensively by the trio of Alex Robenolt, Connor Hamilton and Jon Kozarian.
 
Hamilton finished the doubleheader going a combined 4-for-6 with three runs scored, one home run, two RBI and a pair of walks. Robenolt was 4-for-8 with two runs, four RBI, one home run, two doubles and a triple. Kozarian rounded out the group with a 4-for-8, four-run, one-double afternoon.
 
GAME ONE: Slippery Rock 6 – West Virginia State 2
The Rock began Sunday's doubleheader with a convincing 6-2 victory over the host Yellow Jackets.
 
Andy McClymonds (1-0) had a great opening to his 2020 season as he gave The Rock six strong innings on the mound with a career-high nine strikeouts while scattering two runs on four hits and three walks. Christian Seelhorst came on in relief of McClymonds in the seventh and proceeded to strikeout two batters during his lone inning of work in what was a solid SRU debut for the Seton Hill transfer.
 
Robenolt paced Slippery Rock's offense with arguably his best collegiate performance to date. The sophomore outfielder finished a single shy of the cycle, going 3-for-4 with two runs scored, four RBI and a home run.
 
Hamilton also posted a multi-hit day via a 2-for-3, two-run, one-RBI, one-walk effort. Kozarian, Abraham Mow, Vince Donato and Quentin Brown all tallied one hit apiece in the opener with Mow and Kozarian also scoring one run each.
 
SRU scored four straight runs over the opening three innings in game one including a three-run third that saw a run-scoring single by Hamilton and an RBI-double off the bat of Robenolt.
 
West Virginia State would get one run back in the bottom of the third, but never truly threatened SRU's lead as The Rock scored two more runs in the fifth en route to the eventual four-run win.
 
WVSU's Daniel Brandon (0-3) took the loss for the Yellow Jackets after surrendering all six Rock runs over 4.2 innings. Jeremy Graley tossed 2.1 shutout innings in relief of Brandon to end the game.
 
GAME TWO: Slippery Rock 8 – West Virginia State 7
Slippery Rock jumped out to an early lead in game two and fended off a feisty Yellow Jacket squad on the way to an 8-7 victory.
 
Nick Reynosa went 2-for-3 with three RBI to lead SRU in game two. Hamilton, a transfer from West Virginia University, registered his first home run in a Rock uniform as part of a two-hit game.
 
Kozarian finished off a great opening weekend by going 3-for-4 with three runs scored and one double. Robenolt and Brown, who scored twice, also collected hits with Robenolt's coming by way of double.
 
Trailing 1-0, Slippery Rock evened the game up early on when Reynosa drove a single up the middle in the second inning that plated Kozarian, who reached base with a single of his own earlier in the frame.
 
Slippery Rock struck again in the fourth inning as Brown and Kozarian posted back-to-back singles followed by a Zach Mancz walk that loaded the bases with no outs.
 
Reynosa once again delivered for The Rock in the next at-bat via a two-run single to give SRU a 3-1 advantage. The Rock added an additional run in the inning by way of a Mow sacrifice fly before WVSU was able to get out of the inning with Slippery Rock ahead 4-1.
 
SRU seemingly broke the game open an inning later with four more runs highlighted by a solo home run from Hamilton. The Yellow Jackets did rally back by scoring five runs in the bottom of the fifth to trim their deficit to two runs at 8-6.
 
However, Derek Boben, who entered the game in the fifth inning for starter Luke Trueman, came in to silence any thoughts of a comeback win by getting SRU out of WVSU's big fifth inning followed by a perfect sixth while finally escaping a bases loaded jam in the seventh inning by inducing a game-ending groundout to secure Slippery Rock's 8-7 victory.
 
Trueman (1-0) earned the win on the mound for The Rock. He kept WVSU's batters in check for much of the day outside of the Yellow Jackets' five-run fifth inning. In all, Trueman went 4.2 innings and gave up six runs, four of which were earned, on nine hits and two walks in addition to two strikeouts.
 
Boben earned his first career save following an outing in which he pitched 2.1 innings and allowed just one unearned run on one hit, one walk and a hit batter.  

Slippery Rock will play four games over three days at the Division II Challenge in Cary, North Carolina March 6-8. SRU opens the DII Challenge 3:30 p.m. March 6 against Molloy followed by games against Walsh (March 7), Saint Rose (March 7) and Dominican (March 8).



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