INSTITUTE, W. Va. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team combined a dominant pitching performance with a season-high three home runs to earn an 8-1 road win Saturday over West Virginia State University at Cal Bailey Field.
The nine-inning victory improves The Rock's record to 5-4 overall while the host Yellow Jackets drop to 6-6.
Gage Gillott headlined The Rock's offensive efforts, going 3-for-4 with four runs scored, two home runs, four RBI, a walk and one stolen base. Gillot is the first Rock athlete to register a multi-home run game since Alex Robenolt did so against Shippensburg University on Feb. 26, 2023.
Nate Malak turned in a second consecutive great performance on the mound to lead Slippery Rock Saturday. Malak allowed just one run on two hits and three walks in addition to striking out eight batters over six innings en route to improving his record to 2-0 in 2025.
Mark Wilbur came on for Malak in the seventh and proceeded to throw three shutout innings that included six strikeouts as he registered his first save of the season. Wilbur is yet to allow an earned run on the year with 12 strikeouts and only three hits allowed in 7.2 total innings.
Treston Nemeth joined Gillot's power display with his first home run of the season as part of a 1-for-4 day at the plate that also included two runs, two RBI and a walk.
Making his Slippery Rock debut, freshman
Stone Powell drove in one run via his first collegiate hit – a second-inning RBI single.
Tyler Cerame and
Clay Wiesen reached base twice apiece on walks with Cerame scoring one run and Wiesen stealing his third base of the season.
Joe Purcell and
Jimmy Sadler each had one hit while Purcell also scored a run to round out SRU's top performers.
Slippery Rock, which was held to one run in its series-opening loss Friday, scored four consecutive runs early on to set the tone Saturday. After Powell's second-inning RBI, SRU rattled off three more runs an inning later when Nemeth belted a two-run homer followed three pitches later by solo shot from Gillott.
SRU plated another run in the fifth when GIllott took advantage of a WVSU throwing error on Wiesen's steal of second base to score from third before putting the game out of reach in the sixth when Gillott drove a three-run home run over the centerfield wall.
The abundance of run support was more than enough for Malak and Wilbur as The Rock pitchers worked through the WVSU lineup without facing trouble for much of the afternoon.
West Virginia State's best chance of a big inning came in the third when a walk, fielding error and finally a bunt single loaded the bases with just one out. However, Malak avoided serious trouble by getting out of the inning with a pair of ground balls which limited WVSU to just one run.
Malak allowed just two additional baserunners over his next three innings before turning the game over Wilbur, who stranded two West Virginia State baserunners in the both the seventh and eighth innings before retiring the Yellow Jackets in order in the ninth on the way to his fourth career save.
West Virginia State used five pitchers Saturday. Starter Zane Loveday (0-2) was the pitcher of record after giving up four runs on four hits and four walks over 3.2 innings.
Slippery Rock and West Virginia State will decide the series 12 p.m. Sunday with a another nine-inning game at Cal Bailey Field.
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