After an offensive onslaught against Clarion University on Wednesday, the Slippery Rock University softball team traveled to Mercyhurst University to take on the Lakers in a pair of Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) match-ups.
The Rock brought their red-hot offense into game one, winning 13-2 in five innings in the process, but would end up losing 3-2 in game two. Slippery Rock is now 16-19 (.457) overall and 6-8 (.429) in conference play. Mercyhurst is now 12-26-1 (.307) and 5-9 (.357).
The Rock’s bats came alive early on in game one, as they tallied five runs in the second inning. The huge inning for Slippery Rock began with a bases-loaded walk by freshman Machala Andrews. Freshman Alexa Guglielmino would then proceed to hit a single that would score senior right fielder Nicole Siciliano and junior McKenzie Garland, the latter being on a fielding error by the Lakers. Andrews and Guglielmino would eventually come around to score on another Laker error to give Slippery Rock a commanding five-run lead.
The Green and White would score eight runs in the top of the fifth, which featured a two-run home run by junior catcher Lauren Hawley and a two-out double by senior third basemen Caitlin Baxter, which would give The Rock a 13-run lead that would drown the Lakers in game one.
The only offensive threat the Lakers posed was in the bottom of the fifth inning when Rock starting pitcher senior Carly DeRose gave up a one out, two-run home run to the Lakers’ Rachel DiBartolomeo. DeRose would get the final two outs of the game on two groundouts, thus handing defeat to Mercyhurst.
DeRose pitched all five innings of game one. She gave up two runs (both earned) on five hits while walking two batters. The win is DeRose’s sixth on the season.
In game two, Slippery Rock would not be able to capitalize on as many offensive chances as they were able to do in game one. Mercyhurst took an early lead in the first inning off a sacrifice fly-out by DiBartolomeo that scored the runner from third to give Mercyhurst the 1-0 advantage. Mercyhurst would extend their lead in the fifth inning to 3-0 on a fielder’s choice, and an RBI single, which would end the Lakers’ scoring for the afternoon.
Down 3-0 with two outs in the top of the seventh inning, Garland would reach base on an error and would come around to score on an RBI single by Andrews, her third hit and second RBI of the afternoon. The Rock would score their second run of the inning on a fielding error by Mercyhurst’s shortstop that would score sophomore Caitlyn MacKelvey, who pinch-ran for Andrews. Slippery Rock would not be able to score the tying run, however, as sophomore Megan Brown would groundout to third base to end the game.
Junior Brooke Dawson started on the mound for Slippery Rock in game two. The loss is her seventh of the season. She gave up three runs (two earned) on eight hits and one walk.
With the win and loss, Slippery Rock is now in fourth place in the PSAC West standings.
