INSTITUTE, W. Va. - The Slippery Rock University baseball team lost to West Virginia State University, 10-7, Sunday at Cal Bailey Field in Institute, West Virginia.
 
The non-conference setback moves The Rock's record back to .500 at 5-5 while West Virginia State improves to 7-6 following Sunday's win, which also gave the Yellow Jackets a 2-1 series victory over SRU.
 
Offense was plentiful for both teams Sunday as Slippery Rock and WVSU combined for 20 hits.
 
Tyler Cerame had an exceptional day, going 3-for-5 with one run, one RBI, a double and three stolen bases. Cerame's three stolen bases is the highest single-game total by a Rock athlete since Frankie Jezioro stole three bases against Alderson-Broaddus on April 25, 2018.
 
Cerame is now a perfect 6-for-6 in stolen base attempts this season in addition to leading SRU in runs scored (nine) and hits (13).
 
Clay Wiesen also had a multi-hit game at the plate, going 2-for-5 with a double, while Michael Kitko led a six-man Rock contingent with one-hit outings courtesy of a two-run home run – his first of the year.
 
Jimmy Sadler, Treston Nemeth, Gage Gillott, Brandon Butler and Cam Panyko Morris joined Kitko with one hit and one run apiece. Sadler, Nemeth and Butler all collected one RBI as well.
 
Joe Purcell (0-2) was the pitcher of record for The Rock on the mound after allowing eight runs, only three of which were earned, on six hits and five walks over 3.1 innings pitched.
 
Ethan Edkins came on for Purcell in the fourth and pitched 3.2 innings, striking out four and giving up two runs. Joey Vanzin made his second appearance of the year with a scoreless eighth inning to round out The Rock's pitching efforts.
 
SRU struck early with a three-run first inning only for West Virginia State to fire back with five runs in the second.
 
The Rock and Yellow Jackets went on to match each other over the following two innings with each scoring once in the third and twice in the fourth to make it an 8-6 contest in favor of West Virginia State heading into the game's middle stages.
 
Slippery Rock tacked on a run in the fifth by way of two-out RBI double from Cerame that scored Panyko Morris, who singled earlier in the inning, to cut WVSU's lead to just one run at 8-7.
 
However, The Rock's comeback bid ended there as West Virginia State's Michael Bittinger hit a two-run home run in the seventh while reliever Jared Nethercutt logged 10 consecutive outs following Cerame's run-scoring double to send the game into the ninth with WVSU leading 10-7.
 
Gillott did break up the string of outs with a leadoff single in the ninth, but Nethercutt registered a pair of flyball outs sandwiched around a groundout to seal the three-run victory.
 
Nethercutt (2-0) took the win for West Virginia State after limiting SRU to one run over five innings pitched. WVSU starter Brian Lingenfelter gave up six runs in four innings as part of a no-decision appearance.
 
Bittinger went 3-for-4 with three runs, one home run and two RBI to pace the West Virginia State bats.
 
Slippery Rock returns to competition for its first home games of the 2025 season when it hosts Saint Anselm College for a four-game series March 15-17 at Jack Critchfield Park.




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