No. 21 Mercyhurst 6, East Stroudsburg 5 (11 inn).

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Ethan Santora's RBI-single in the bottom of the 11th lifted No. 21 Mercyhurst College to a 6-5 win over East Stroudsburg in the opening round of play at the 2011 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Baseball Championship at Point Stadium.

Winner of the PSAC West regular season and the division's No. 1 seed in the postseason tournament, Mercyhurst (36-10) advances to play the Western Division's third-seeded team in California (Pa.) tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. The Vulcans were a 13-6 winner over the East's No. 2 seed Shippensburg in the first game of the tournament. Meanwhile, East Stroudsburg (25-17) drops to the loser's bracket where they will face Ship at 9:30 a.m.

Santora's bases-loaded bomb off the fence in deep left with one out easily scored Justin Urschel for the game-winner. Urschel led off the inning with a walk before Jonathan Keppler advanced him to second with a sacrifice bunt. With one out, the Warriors elected to intentionally walk Zak Blair and force the double play. However, a wild pitch moved the runners up 90 feet before the Warriors again intentionally walked Kevin McCall to set the stage for Santora.

East Stroudsburg sent the game into extra innings in dramatic fashion after scoring four runs in its final at-bat, erasing a 5-1 Laker lead. However, sophomore southpaw Ben Rawding came on in relief of closer Matthew Jimenez to shut the Warriors down for three innings to move to 5-1 on the year. Starter Eric Aschley went eight innings, allowing one unearned run on four while striking out six batters.

The Warriors opened the scoring in the top of the third inning when Guarino and Cain hit back-to-back singles with one out and Griesemer flared a line drive to right that was misplayed.

Mercyhurst tied the game at 1-1 on a one-out double by Urschel and an RBI single by Blair, and went ahead 3-1 in the fifth when Shane Latshaw hit a leadoff double and the Lakers capitalized on four walks.
Mercyhurst went ahead 5-1 in the sixth, taking advantage of an RBI-single by Keppler and two walks to open the inning.

Keppler and Santora each had a hit and a team-high two RBI. Craig Denman went 3-for-4 with a run scored and Shane Latshaw went 1-for-3 with two runs scored. Urschel, who had a double on the day, managed to come around to score three times in the contest after picking up two key walks.

Notes:
Senior shortstop Jonathan Keppler tied his own single-season walks record (47). He already owns the Laker and PSAC career mark (127). He is three away from tying the PSAC single-season mark (50).

The Lakers defeated East Stroudsburg in the PSAC tournament for the second consecutive season.

With a 36-10 record, the 2011 squad ties the 1996 squad for the fourth-best record in program history.

The Lakers remain ranked second in the NCAA Atlantic Region. East Stroudsburg improved to No. 5 in the regional rankings released today.

Mercyhurst won its fourth-straight game.