GREENSBURG, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team guaranteed itself a second consecutive trip to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Tournament by shutting Seton Hill University out in a 3-0 game-one win Thursday on the road. The Griffins took game two from SRU, 2-1.
 
The Rock improve to 31-16 on the season and 16-10 in the PSAC West with the result, while the Griffins are now 33-13 overall and 19-7 inside league play. With the win Slippery Rock is assured of finishing no worse than fourth in the PSAC West standings with the possibility of climbing to as high as second still alive.
 
Slippery Rock's game-one win over Seton Hill snapped a nine-game losing streak to the Griffins that began in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. The Rock's win came in large part due to a gem pitched by Nate Malak (6-2), who fanned three batters and allowed only two hits and no walks in a 78-pitch complete game.
 
Malak headlined what was a great all-around day by The Rock's pitching staff as Hunter Loomis and Mark Wilbur were also solid in game two's tight loss.
 
Offensively, five Rock athletes had hits in both ends of Thursday's doubleheader.
 
Stone Powell and Treston Nemeth posted matching stat lines on the day, 3-for-6 with one run. Robert Herr went 2-for-5 with two runs scored, a walk and a double while Clay Wiesen also finished 2-for-5 with a walk and one RBI.
 
Gage Gillott stretched his hitting streak to 15 games following a 3-for-8 day at the plate.
 
GAME ONE – SRU 3 - SHU 0
Malak diced his way through the Griffin batting order on the way to a two-hit shutout in The Rock's 3-0 victory in game one.
 
It took just 78 pitches for Malak to record his third complete-game shutout of 2025. SRU's ace struck out three batters without issuing a walk to go with the aforementioned two hits allowed against a Seton Hill team that entered Thursday averaging 6.7 runs on 9.1 hits per game.
 
Malak received two runs of support early as Slippery Rock scored a pair in the second inning courtesy of a Wiesen RBI-single and later Nemeth taking advantage of a Griffin throwing error to score from second base.
 
Seton Hill's first hit of the game did not come until the third inning when Max Mandler drove a double to left field before Malak bounced back with a strikeout and inning-ending groundout to strand what turned out to be the only baserunner SHU put into scoring position all game.
 
The groundout to end the third inning was the first of a string of 10 consecutive groundouts that Malak forced Seton Hill to hit into, allowing SRU to take its two-run advantage into the seventh inning.
 
While Slippery Rock tallied an additional insurance run in the final inning via a Brandon Butler groundout that brought in Herr, it turned out not to be needed as Malak worked around a one-out single in the bottom of the frame with a strikeout and flyout on the way to The Rock's PSAC Tournament berth clinching win.
 
Powell and Nemeth both finished the opener 2-for-3 with one run scored. Butler and Wiesen accounted for SRU's RBIs while being two of five Rock athletes – along with Gillott, Herr and Michael Kitko – to register one-hit games.
 
Jone McCullough (8-3) was the losing pitcher for Seton Hill. He allowed two runs on seven hits in six innings. Reliever Christian Zilli gave up one run in his inning pitched out of the Griffins' bullpen.
 
GAME TWO – SHU 2 - SRU 1
Slippery Rock took an early one-run advantage into the fifth inning, but a late Seton Hill rally allowed the Griffins to take game two, 2-1, and salvage the doubleheader split.
 
Back-to-back doubles to lead off the third inning by Herr and Tyler Cerame gave Slippery Rock a 1-0 lead before SHU starting pitcher Matthew Blanchard could get out of the inning.
 
SRU maintained its narrow lead over the middle stages of the contest as reigning PSAC West Pitcher of the Week Hunter Loomis turned in another strong outing with four shutout innings, sending Slippery Rock into the fifth with another shutout bid intact.
 
However, a one-out single by Mandler followed by a walk of Michael Gregos put two runners on base in the fifth for reliever Mark Wilbur. A double steal by Seton Hill then pushed both runners into scoring position leading to a two-run single by Owen Henne for the game's go-ahead runs.
 
Slippery Rock did put a runner on base in both the sixth and seventh innings, but could never get the tying run across in the eventual one-run setback.
 
Loomis allowed just one hit and two walks while striking out three in four innings pitched. Wilbur (2-2) was the pitcher of record for SRU after giving up two runs on two hits and two walks to go with three strikeouts of his own through a two-inning appearance.
 
Gillott supplied two of The Rock's seven hits in the game. Wiesen also reached base twice in a 1-for-2, one-walk performance. Cerame was 1-for-3 with one RBI while Powell, Nemeth and Herr rounded out the top performers at one hit each.
 
Luke Deschenes (3-3) came out of Seton Hill's bullpen to pitch two shutout innings and get the win. Evan Rossi finished out the game by earning a save after pitching scoreless sixth and seventh innings.  

Slippery Rock returns home to host Seton Hill for a PSAC West doubleheader Friday at Critchfield Park. Game one is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Prior to the opener, Slippery Rock will recognize its 2025 senior class in a brief pregame ceremony.






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