SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – It was a painful Sunday afternoon for the IUP baseball team as they dropped a pair of close games at rival Slippery Rock by scores of 2-0 and 6-5.
Game two went to extra innings as Slippery Rock won on an RBI single in the eighth inning.
The losses for IUP wrapped up a four-game series sweep this weekend. The Crimson Hawks fall to 10-22 overall and 7-13 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. Slippery Rock is 23-11 overall and tied for first in the PSAC West standings with a 16-4 divisional record.
Nine different Crimson Hawks had at least one hit Sunday, with
Nate Dickey (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Dauphin) hitting a pinch-hit two-run home run in the sixth inning of game two. It was his fifth homer of the season and gave IUP a 5-4 lead.
The Crimson Hawks rallied from an early 3-0 deficit, scoring a pair of runs on RBI singles from
Cory Wheeler (Butler, Pa./Butler) and
Chris Eisel (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin) in the third, and
Austin Mueller (Allentown, Pa./Parkland) in the fourth.
After Dickey's homer in the sixth, Slippery Rock tied the game at 5-5 in the bottom half, but failed to take the lead as Dickey threw Ray Scala out at home from right field.
Scala would count as the game-winning run in the eighth, reaching with a leadoff single and later scored on a single by Joe Campagna.
Jeff Allen (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Mechanicsburg Area) took the loss in game one, striking out six in six innings of work. He scattered just three hits and gave up two earned runs.
Up next
The Crimson Hawks head to Shippensburg for a non-divisional doubleheader with the Raiders Tuesday afternoon. That precedes their PSAC West series with Seton Hill next weekend.
Follow
For up-to-date game information, visit www.IUPAthletics.com and follow IUP baseball on Twitter @IUPCrimsonHawk and @IUPBaseball.
