SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team was dominant in virtually every facet of the game Sunday as SRU earned a 12-4 victory over West Virginia State University at Jack Critchfield Park.  
 
Sunday's win combined with a doubleheader split on Saturday gives Slippery Rock (2-1) its first series victory of the season. West Virginia State falls to 2-2 on the year with the loss.
 
Thanks in no small part to the pitching performance of Ricky Mineo (1-0), SRU did not trail Sunday. Mineo turned in the best performance of his collegiate career with 11 strikeouts and only one run allowed on a hit and a walk over six strong innings to completely shut down the Yellow Jackets. The Slippery Rock High School product carried a perfect game into the sixth inning.
 
Strikeouts by Rock pitchers turned out to be a re-occurring theme on the day. In addition to Mineo's double-digit punchout performance, Christian Seelhorst tallied six strikeouts and Andy McClymonds added two more to give The Rock 19 on the day, the most by SRU's pitching staff in a single-game in the last 17 years.
 
Equally as impressive as Slippery Rock's pitchers on Sunday was SRU's performance at the plate where The Rock posted 13 hits, eight of which being of the extra-base variety.
 
Colin Cain continued his hot start to the season by going 2-for-3 with two runs scored, one home run and four RBI in addition to walking once and tallying one double. Cain exits The Rock's opening weekend with four hits in his first seven at-bats.
 
Abraham Mow matched Cain with a two-run home run of his own. The blast was the 18th of Mow's Rock career. His next home run will move him into a tie with Frankie Jezioro (2016-19) for the 10th most homers in program history.
 
Alex Robenolt was 3-for-4 with two runs, one RBI and a pair of doubles. Jon Kozarian also collected three hits while Quentin Brown added two hits and two runs of his own. Joel Spishock drove in two runs, walked once and had one double.
 
Connor Hamilton added one hit and the duo of Luke Trueman and Koby Bubash drove in a run apiece to round out The Rock's top performers.
 
Sunday's game was never in question as Mineo stymied West Virginia State for the majority of the afternoon and The Rock's offense exploded for its highest run output since scoring 18 times against Molloy on March 6, 2020.
 
SRU scored the game's first run in the second inning when Robenolt, who led off the frame with a double, was brought home by Trueman. The Rock added four more runs in the fourth inning via run-scoring hits from Brown and Spishock as well as Cain's two-run home run to centerfield.
 
Slippery Rock proceeded to blow the game open in the fifth inning with seven runs to stretch its lead to 12-0. SRU sent 10 batters to the plate in the big inning that was highlighted by three doubles and Mow's two-run home run.
 
Mineo retired the first batter of the sixth inning before giving up a walk and a double back-to-back which ultimately led to a sacrifice fly by Brendan Quinn for WVSU's first run before SRU was able to get out of the inning.
 
McClymonds came on for Mineo in the seventh and while the Yellow Jackets were able to score three runs in the frame The Rock's lead was never seriously in jeopardy as Seelhorst followed McClymonds by striking out five the final eight batters of the game to finish off the eight-run victory.
 
Starting pitcher Foster Conis (0-1) gave up one run over 1.1 innings in the loss for West Virginia State. Michael Stone added a three-run double to lead WVSU's offense.
 
Slippery Rock is back in action with two more non-conference home doubleheaders next weekend. SRU will host Indiana University (Pa.) March 12 and Frostburg State University March 14. First pitch of game one against IUP is set for 1 p.m. The Rock and Frostburg State will start their doubleheader at 12 p.m.
 
 
 
 
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