LEESBURG, Fla. – The Slippery Rock University softball team swept its competition on day five of The Spring Games with victories over Post University and Salem University Thursday.
 
The Rock (8-8), winners of four consecutive games, earned a 5-3 win in game one over the Eagles (0-11) before defeating the Tigers (7-9) by a narrow 6-5 margin in game two.
 
Slippery Rock was led over two games by Alexsa Hurd who went an impressive 5-for-7 with four RBI and three runs. Aubrey Mansfield continued a strong freshman campaign as she was 2-for-6 with three RBI and one run scored.
 
Arielle Brown went 2-for-6 with three runs and Erin Gardner rounded out the leaders as she was 2-for-6 with two runs scored and one RBI.
 
GAME ONE: SRU 5 – PU 3
The Rock held a one-run lead entering the seventh inning before scoring a pair of insurance runs to lift themselves to a 5-3 victory over Post.
 
Hurd paced the Slippery Rock offense with a solid performance that saw her go 3-for-4 while driving in a game-high three runners to along with one run scored and one double.
 
Mansfield and Gardner aided in the win with one hit and one RBI each. Brown scored two runs while Gardner and Regan Hozak registered one run apiece.
 
Kelsi Anderson (6-1) took the win after allowing two runs on four hits over while striking out three batters through four innings pitched before giving way to Chloe Sharman.
 
Sharman earned her third consecutive save, and fourth of the season, after allowing only one unearned run on two hits with six strikeouts over three innings of work.
 
Post plated the first run of the game in the opening frame on a walk before Anderson and the Slippery Rock defense faced only four batters exiting the second inning trailing by only one run heading into the third.
 
With two outs on the board, and Brown and Hozak in scoring position, Gardner registered an RBI single to even the score before Hurd plated two runners on a right field single to right field to lift SRU to 3-1 over Post.
 
SRU and PU then played three empty innings from the fourth through the sixth before Slippery Rock tacked on two insurance runs at the top of the seventh to give The Rock a lead they would never relinquish.
 
Sharman worked her way out of a bottom of the seventh jam surrendering only one run before setting up the final line out to seal a 5-3 Slippery Rock win.
 
Post pitcher Jenny Riquel (0-6) took the loss after surrendering five runs, two being earned, on nine hits over a complete game effort while Julianna Cicala paced the offense going 2-for-2 with one RBI.
 
GAME TWO: SRU 6 – SU 5
Slippery Rock silenced a seventh-inning rally by Salem to preserve a one-run 6-5 victory over the Tigers to finish a day five sweep.
 
Mackenzie Borkovich (1-0) and Andrea Gellegos (0-1) entered a pitching battle over the first three frames with neither pitcher surrendering a run. SRU was finally able to break the stalemate in the fourth inning with back-to-back sacrifice flies from Fisk and Mansfield to give The Rock a 2-0 lead.
 
Slippery Rock and Salem played a scoreless fifth frame before the Tigers evened the score in the top of sixth inning with a two-RBI single.
 
SRU answered by tacking on four additional runs in the bottom of the sixth with Brown and Hurd scoring on RBI-singles and Fisk and Mansfield reaching home courtesy of a pair of Salem fielding errors to retake a two-run lead.
 
The Tigers were able to make a late game rally in the seventh inning pulling within one-run of another tie.
 
However, any thoughts of a comeback were halted by Claire Zimmerman and The Rock defense who worked their way out of a one-out, one runner in scoring position jam by striking out one batter and inducing the game-ending out at home from Grace Smith to Hurd to Emma Kennedy to secure the 6-5 win.
 
Borkovich earned her first collegiate win after allowing two runs, only one being earned, on five hits while striking out two batters over six innings before giving way to Zimmerman.
 
Zimmerman in one inning pitched surrendered three runs, two of which were earned, on three hits.
 
Pacing the SRU offense through game two was Mansfield who went 1-for-2 with two RBI and one run scored as well as Hurd who was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and one RBI. Fisk ended the game with one RBI and one run scored while Brown and Gardner each tallied one run apiece.
 
Salem was led by Jazmyn Moetului who went 2-for-4 with three RBI. Gallegos was the pitcher of record after allowing six runs, three being earned, on six hits over 5.1 innings pitched.
 
Slippery Rock rounds out its time at The Spring Games with two contests against Alliance University and Bentley University at Sleepy Hollow Complex in Leesburg, Florida.





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