SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - The Slippery Rock University baseball team continues the early stages of its 2024 season with four games over three days this weekend at the Cary Challenge.
 
SCHEDULE
• Slippery Rock opens its weekend with a doubleheader beginning 9 a.m. Friday against Pace University at the USA Baseball Training Complex (Field 4).
 
• 1 p.m. Saturday, SRU meets Dominican University (N.Y.) at Durham Athletic Park for what will be its third game of the year against the Chargers.
 
• The Rock closes out their weekend Sunday at Durham Athletic Park for a 9 a.m. game against St Thomas Aquinas College.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Slippery Rock opened its 2024 season with back-to-back 7-6 victories in a home doubleheader against Dominican. Both of SRU's wins came via walkoff hits.
 
SERIES HISTORY
• Friday's doubleheader will be the first documented games between The Rock and Pace in either program's history.
 
• After its season-opening sweep of Dominican, SRU is now 7-1 against DU all-time.
 
• St. Thomas Aquinas holds a 4-2 all-time record against The Rock, but the two teams have not met since 2019.
 
SLIPPERY ROCK PRIMER
• Stats: Link
• Roster: Link
• Overall Record: 2-0
• Home Record: 2-0
• Away Record: 0-0
• Neutral Site Record: 0-0
• Streak: W2
• Last 5 Games: N/A
• Head Coach: Jeff Messer | 39th season (1,097-723-5, .602)
 
MESSER CLOSING IN ON 1,100
With The Rock's sweep of Dominican to open the season, Slippery Rock head coach Jeff Messer moved into a tie for 11th place alongside Jack Smitheran (Emporia State 1970-73 / UC Riverside 1974-04) in NCAA Division II history for wins in a career with 1,097.
 
With three more victories, Messer will become the 60th coach in NCAA history – regardless of Division to have won at least 1,100 games. For context of just how impressive feat that is, 557,825 coaches have led an NCAA baseball program in the organization's history according to its national database.  
 
HEADING BACK TO CARY
This weekend will mark the first time since 2020 that Slippery Rock will play games in Cary, North Carolina. On its last trip to Cary, SRU returned north after taking three of four games with wins against Molloy, Walsh and Dominican as well as a loss to Saint Rose.
 
PRESSURE PLAYERS
Both of The Rock's 7-6 wins against Dominican came in dramatic fashion with walkoff hits. Dating back to the 2009 season, last weekend marked the first time Slippery Rock produced walkoff wins in both games of a doubleheader.
 
• In game one, Tyler Cerame delivered a two-run double that plated Joey Purcell and Koby Bubash for the game-winning runs.
 
• Following suit in game two, Darryn Callahan shot a single to right field that brought in Michael Kitko for another 7-6 victory.
 
BIG FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Slippery Rock received significant contributions from a trio of athletes who were making their SRU debuts last weekend in the Dominican doubleheader.
 
• Cerame, a shortstop, went 4-for-8 with two runs scored, two RBI and walk over the doubleheader. Of his four hits, three went for extra bases with a triple and two doubles – one of which being his aforementioned game-winning hit in SRU's season-opener.
 
• After producing a triple and a run scored over three at-bats as SRU's starting left fielder in game one against Dominican, Gage Gillott proceeded to scatter one run and four hits while striking out four batters over four innings as The Rock's game two starting pitcher.
 
• A true freshman out of Apollo Ridge High School, Brandon Butler started both ends of the doubleheader at third base. At the plate, the rookie had a double and one RBI in six at-bats.
 
GREAT WORK OUT OF THE BULLPEN
A key to The Rock's doubleheader sweep of Dominican was great pitching out of its bullpen.
 
• SRU relievers accounted for 9.1 of The Rock's 16 innings pitched over the two games, allowing just four earned runs. None of the bullpen's four inherited runners scored.
 
• The duo of Robert Herr (1-0) and Purcell (1-0) both earned wins on opening day by throwing two shutout innings apiece in game's one and two, respectively. Herr did not allow a single hit and Purcell worked around one walk and one hit while striking out two batters.
 
• Parker Hogge opened his sophomore campaign with just one unearned run surrendered over 2.1 innings pitched. Hogge tallied four strikeouts while navigating past three hits and a pair of walks.
 
• Kitko (2.1 IP) and Hunter Loomis (0.2 IP) rounded out Slippery Rock's relievers that pitched last weekend.
 
MULTIFACETED ATHLETES
If the Dominican doubleheader was any indication, there appears to be no end in sight to The Rock's tradition of utilizing highly-skilled athletes as both pitchers and position players. Against Dominican, four Rock players pitched while starting games in the field.  
 
• Gillott was SRU's starting left fielder in game one and its starting pitcher in game two.
 
• Purcell went 1-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBI as The Rock's first baseman in game one prior to throwing two shutout innings in game two to earn the win out of SRU's bullpen.
 
• In reverse of Purcell, Herr pitched two perfect innings to take the victory in the opener before patrolling centerfield and producing a double in game two.
 
• Kitko pitched 2.1 innings out of The Rock's bullpen in the opener followed by posting a 2-for-2, two-run, one-RBI outing as an outfielder in game two.
 
VETERANS MAKE LONG AWAITED RETURNS
• After being limited to just 11 games played a season ago, none of which came after March 28, Eddie Morris returned to The Rock's lineup last week and did not disappoint as the outfielder went 4-for-7 over two games with two runs, two RBI, a double and a triple.
 
• Ethan Edkins, who missed last year after being named the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division Freshman of the Year in 2022 when he went 6-1 with a 3.08 ERA over 38 innings pitched, started game one against Dominican.
 
• Edkins had three strikeouts over 2.2 innings against the Chargers. He allowed three runs in the first inning, but gave up just one additional run in his final 1.2 innings of work.
 
MORE THAN ONE WAY TO GET ON
While Koby Bubash went hitless against Dominican, the senior second baseman still managed to get on base three times by drawing two walks and being hit by a pitch. Bubash has been a constant on the basepaths for SRU over his career, a year ago he led the team in on-base percentage (.409) while ranking third in 2022 (.441) and fifth in 2021 (.378).
 
EXTRA BASES ALL-AROUND
Eight of The Rock's 18 hits against Dominican went for extra bases in the form of five doubles and three triples.  
 
EVERYONE HITS
10 of the 12 Rock athletes to record multiple at-bats against Dominican came away with at least one hit.
 
PACE PRIMER
• 2023 Stats: Link
• 2024 Roster: Link
• 2023 Overall Record: 34-21
• 2023 Home Record: 13-11
• 2023 Away Record: 16-6
• 2023 Neutral Site Record: 5-4
• 2023 Postseason: NCAA Tournament
• Head Coach: Hank Manning | 23rd season (512-524-4, .494)
 
TOP RETURNING HITTERS
Mason Baronian: .350 (69-197) – 36 runs – 2 HR - 27 RBI - .424 OBP
Anthony Labita: .319 (60-188) – 35 runs – 7 HR - 35 RBI - .403 OBP
Josh Miller: .308 (48-156) – 35 runs – 1 HR - 23 RBI - .389 OBP
Hunter Goldstein: .255 (39-153) – 25 runs – 33 RBI - .370 OBP
 
TOP RETURNING PITCHERS
Patrick Gleason: 8-2 – 74.2 IP – 1.81 ERA –  69 K / 40 BB - .187 OBA
Vincent Civitella: 6-3 – 60.1 IP – 2.98 ERA –  71 K / 37 BB - .200 OBA
Brendan McCann: 4-5 – 45 IP – 3.40 ERA –  23 K / 27 BB - .281 OBA
Dan Brown: 2-1 – 36 IP – 3.75 ERA –  36 K / 39 BB - .205 OBA
 
DOMINICAN PRIMER
• Stats: Link
• Roster: Link
• Overall Record: 0-2
• Home Record: 0-0
• Away Record: 0-2
• Streak: L2
• Last 5 Games: N/A
• Head Coach: Rick Giannetti | 22nd season at DU (488-481-2 / .503)
 
TOP HITTERS
David Knepper: .500 (3-6) – 1 run – .500 OBP
Jean Nunez: .500 (2-4) – 0 runs – 3 RBI - .500 OBP
Josh Harrison: .500 (2-4) – 1 run – 1 RBI - .500 OBP
Andrew Smith: .500 (2-4) – 2 runs – .500 OBP
 
TOP PITCHERS
Isaiah Figueroa: 0-0 – 4.2 IP – 0.00 ERA –  3 K / 2 BB - .263 OBA
Anthony Leak: 0-0 – 4.2 IP – 9.64 ERA –  3 K / 1 BB - .294 OBA
John Stoliker: 0-0 – 2.1 IP – 11.57 ERA –  3 K / 1 BB - .300 OBA
Maverick Medina: 0-0 – 1.2 IP – 0.00 ERA –  0 K / 0 BB - .167 OBA
 
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS PRIMER
• Stats: Link
• Roster: Link
• Overall Record: 3-1
• Home Record: 0-0
• Away Record: 0-0
• Neutral Site Record: 3-1
• Streak: W3
• Last 5 Games: N/A
• Head Coach: Jon Garvey | Fifth season (81-67, .547)
 
TOP HITTERS
Joseph Scamardella: .400 (6-15) – 4 runs – 1 HR - 6 RBI - .400 OBP
Gregory DiGiaro: .357 (5-14) – 4 runs – 1 HR - 5 RBI - .471 OBP
Sean Lynch: .308 (4-13) – 3 runs – 1 HR - 4 RBI - .438 OBP
Kyle DeCresce: .333 (4-12) – 4 runs – 2 RBI - .500 OBP
 
TOP PITCHERS
John Archer: 0-0 – 7 IP – 0.00 ERA –  9 K / 2 BB - .167 OBA
Bobby LeFevre: 0-0 – 5 IP – 7.20 ERA –  8 K / 2 BB - .235 OBA
Andrew Schoelles: 1-0 – 5 IP – 7.20 ERA –  3 K / 2 BB - .333 OBA
Kyle Rogers: 1 Save – 2.1 IP – 0.00 ERA –  3 K / 1 BB - .000 OBA
 
UP NEXT
Slippery Rock returns home to host West Virginia State University for a three-game series March 9-10 at Jack Critchfield Park. SRU took two of three games from the Yellow Jackets a year ago on the road.





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