JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – The Mercyhurst baseball team won its third-straight game by double digits in an 18-6 bashing of Shippensburg in the winners' bracket of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championship at Point Stadium Friday, May 12.
The Lakers (36-4) now hold a perfect 2-0 record in the tournament and have a run differential of 32-6 in their two games.
Mercyhurst shot out in front in the first inning with a four-run frame.
Cameron Balego ripped an RBI-double to give the Lakers their first run. After another run scored on a
Drew Delsignore groundout,
Dan Popio added an RBI-single followed by sacrifice fly by
Matthew Schneider.
Shippensburg (29-21-1) fought back to tie the game 4-4 with runs in the second and third innings and proved to be a lineup full of tough outs for Lakers' starting pitcher
Russell Lamovec, who entered the game with a 20-inning scoreless streak.
Collin Fantaskey's double in the top of the fourth scored Schneider and pulled the Lakers back in front by one, but their lead was short lived when Shippensburg's Tommy Bagget launched a solo home run to tie the game again in the bottom half of the inning.
Lamovec labored through 3 1/3 innings, allowing eight hits and five earned runs. He was replaced by
Matthew Keating in the fourth and Keating proved to be the perfect solution for the Lakers. He left Shippensburg with the bases loaded in the fourth inning without allowing a run to keep the game knotted at five.
In the fifth,
Chris Gonzalez led off the frame with his second solo home run of the tournament, giving the Lakers a lead they would not give up for the rest of the game. In the sixth inning, Mercyhurst tacked on four more runs to extend its lead to 10-5. Fantaskey had his second RBI base-knock in the inning followed by a two-run single by
Jimmy Latona in the next at-bat.
Mercyhurst piled on in the top of the ninth with seven more runs, but those runs were not needed as Keating threw a gem in relief. He picked up his third win (3-2) after completing 5 1/3 innings and allowing just one run. He fanned five batters while giving up just four hits and two walks.
The Lakers are now winners of five-straight games and own a 17-0 record when scoring double-digit runs.
Mercyhurst takes on West Chester tomorrow at 12:30 p.m.
