CUP Baseball Swept by Slippery Rock in Conference Opener

| March 24, 2017

SRU baseball Portefield
BUTLER, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team extended its winning streak to six games with a doubleheader sweep of Clarion University Thursday at Kelly Automotive Stadium in Butler, Pennsylvania.

(Photo courtesy of Slippery Rock University Athletics)

Slippery Rock took the opener from Clarion, 4-3, in nine innings before cruising to a 13-4 victory in game two.

The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division sweep improved The Rock’s record to 10-5 on the year overall and 2-0 in league games. Clarion dropped to 3-8 overall and 0-2 in the PSAC West with the losses. The Rock’s six-game winning streak is tied for the longest since the 2014 season.

Christian Porterfield had three hits, two of which were doubles, and five RBI on the day. Tyler Walters also had four hits over the doubleheader with four runs scored, two RBI and a pair of walks.

GAME ONE: Slippery Rock 4 – Clarion 3 (Nine Innings)

The first six innings of the opener belonged to Rock starting pitcher Alex Pantuso, who dominated the Clarion bats after a shaky first inning in which the Golden Eagles scored a pair of runs. Following the first, Pantuso held Clarion to one run and one hit in the next five innings.

Pantuso’s counterpart on the mound, Kane McCall, was also sharp. Slippery Rock got to McCall for one run in the top of the first when Porterfield struck a double that scored Walters from first base, but McCall proceeded to throw three consecutive shutout innings to keep Clarion’s lead at 2-1 going into the fifth.

The Rock produced two runs in the fifth to retake the lead, 3-2. James Divosevic led off the frame with a single and later scored on an RBI-single by Walters, who capped the inning off by stealing second base and scoring on a Clarion fielding error to give SRU its second lead of the day.

However, following four scoreless innings by Pantuso, Clarion was finally able to get to The Rock’s ace when Joey Lopez successfully pulled off a squeeze bunt that brought in Matt Kamenicky from third base, tying the contest at 3-3, before Pantuso could get out of the inning with his 10th strikeout of the game.

Neither team was able to score in the seventh as the game headed to extra innings where Porterfield eventually delivered the game-winning hit in the ninth on an RBI-single to left field that scored Matt Mandes, who was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning before taking second on a wild pitch and advancing to third base on a Luca Fuscardo groundout.

Josh Coleman, who came on for Pantuso in the seventh, secured the win with a nearly spotless ninth. Clarion’s best chance for a walk-off win came in the eighth inning when CU loaded the bases, but Coleman forced John Finke to ground into an inning-ending double play to get out of the jam.

Porterfield finished game one 2-for-5 with two RBI. Walters also produced a multi-hit game at 3-for-4 with one RBI while Divosevic, Mandes, Carson Kessler and Joe Campagna all had hits as well.

Pantuso had 10 strikeouts over six innings and allowed just three runs on three hits and four walks. In four starts this year, Pantuso has already struck out a PSAC-best 38 batters. Coleman had three strikeouts in three scoreless innings of relief work to improve his record to 2-1 on the season.

SRU is now 2-1 in extra-inning games and 6-0 in one-run contests in 2017.

GAME TWO: Slippery Rock 13 – Clarion 4

Slippery Rock enjoyed its best offensive performance of the season in game two as SRU set a season high in hits with 18 and matched its season-best in runs scored en route to the nine-run victory.

Everyone in The Rock’s lineup recorded hits in game two including five players that tallied multi-hit outings. Fuscardo was 4-for-5 with three runs, two RBI and one stolen base. His four hits were a single-game season-high for SRU. Mitchell Wood was 3-for-4 with two runs scored while Kessler, Campagna, Divosevic and Kyle Wise had two hits apiece. In addition to walking twice, Porterfield also drove in three runs.

SRU wasted little time setting the tone for game two as it netted three runs in the opening inning off of back-to-back-to-back RBI plate appearances by Walters, Porterfield and Kessler only to see Clarion fire back with a three-run inning of its own in the second.

The tie was short-lived as Slippery Rock tacked on an additional run in the third via a standup RBI-triple by Wise and three more in the fourth to push its lead out to a comfortable 7-3 margin.

The Golden Eagles shaved one run off The Rock’s lead in the fifth, but any thoughts of a comeback were quickly put to rest when SRU exploded for a monster six-run sixth inning that allowed The Rock to stretch its lead out to 13-4. Porterfield launched a two-run double to start the run-scoring barrage before Kessler, Campagna, Divosevic and Fuscardo came away with consecutive RBI-singles.

After giving up seven hits and three runs in the first two innings, pitcher Preston Falascino settled in to hold Clarion to just three hits and one run through the next four innings before exiting in the fifth with his win firmly intact. Falascino is now 2-1 in 2017 with a 3.33 ERA.

Wyatt Daugherty threw two perfect innings in relief of Falascino to lower his already microscopic ERA to 0.58. Daugherty has not allowed a run in his last seven innings pitched (three appearances).

Slippery Rock and Clarion will finish the four-game series with a doubleheader Sunday at Kelly Automotive Park in Butler, Pennsylvania. First pitch of game one is scheduled for 1 p.m.


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