Game 1 boxscore
Game 2 boxscore

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. -- Junior left fielder Carter Haponski slapped an RBI single to short right field with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning Saturday to give the Slippery Rock University baseball team a come-from-behind 10-9 win over visiting Gannon and complete a doubleheader sweep by The Rock in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division action at Jack Critchfield Park.

The Rock, which won Saturday's first game by a 7-4 score, has won seven of its last eight games and owns a 13-11 overall record and a 7-5 PSAC-West mark.

Gannon, which began the weekend tied with California for first place in the division standings, saw its season record drop to 11-13 and its division mark fall to 7-5.

The Rock's next scheduled action is Monday, when the Green and White are slated to visit Mansfield for a PSAC interdivisional doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. Those games were originally scheduled to be played Sunday but were moved back one day when Mansfield was unable to play its scheduled twinbill vs. Kutztown last Friday.

If Mansfield and Kutztown are unable to play Sunday and that twinbill is moved to Monday, The Rock at Mansfield doubleheader would be moved to Wednesday, Rock head coach Jeff Messer said.

In Saturday's action, Haponski was one of two Rock players to collect three RBIs. He finished the day with three hits in seven at bats and two runs scored. He was 1-for-2 with an RBI in the first game and 2-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored in the second game.

Junior shortstop Adam Jury also collected three RBIs, all in the second game. He finished the day with two hits in six at bats and one run scored. He picked one RBI with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second inning of Game 2 and added a two-run single in The Rock's five-run, bottom-of-the-third inning explosion.

The Rock took a 1-0 lead in the second inning then answered a three-run Gannon outburst in the top of the third with the aforementioned five-run explosion to take a 6-3 lead after three innings.

In addition to Jury's two-run single, the key hits in The Rock fifth were RBI singles by Haponski and junior right fielder Mitchell Monas. Senior designated hitter Jacob Oswalt also hit a sacrifice fly in the inning.

Gannon got one run back in the top of the fourth and tied the score at 6-6 with two runs in the fifth before scoring three times in the top of the sixth to take a 9-6 lead.

Monas doubled and senior second baseman Billy Messer stroked a clutch two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the sixth, when SRU trimmed the gap to one run, 9-8.

Gannon got a two-out double by Kyle Harpster in the top of the seventh but Rock relief pitcher and eventual winner Justin Thomas, a senior right-hander, induced an inning-ending ground out to leave SRU down by one run heading into its final at-bat.

Sophomore Matt Kosik was hit by a pitch in a pinch-hitting role to open The Rock seventh. He was subsequently lifted for a pinch runner, freshman Benny Barnes, who moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Oswalt. Barnes scored the tying run on a two-base error on junior center fielder Matt Howard's ground ball to the right side of the infield.

Howard then stole second and sprinted home on Haponski's game-winning single to right.

Justin Thomas, the third and final Rock pitcher in the game, got the win to even his season record at 1-1. He allowed one hit and hit one batter in two innings of work.

Senior right-hander Vince Lloyd was The Rock Game 2 starting pitcher and allowed six runs (four earned) on five hits, struck out two, walked four and hit two in four and one-third innings.

Junior southpaw John Thomas relieved Lloyd and allowed three runs (two earned) on one hit, walked one and hit one batter in two-thirds of an inning.

Billy Messer was 3-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored to lead a12-hit Rock attack while Haponski, Monas and freshman third baseman Jamison Walck each added two hits.

Howard had a pair of hits in Saturday's first game to lead a nine-hit Rock attack. Kosik (2 RBIs), junior catcher Derek DiRuscia (RBI) and junior first baseman Nick Caito (RBI) each had run-scoring doubles in the game.

Senior right-hander Don Pugliese (2-0) was The Rock's starting and winning pitcher in the first game as he scattered eight hits, allowed four earned runs, struck out nine and walked one en route to his second complete-game effort of the season.

Each team scored a run in the first inning of Saturday's first game. Gannon then added two tallies in the top of the fourth to take a 3-1 lead, only to see The Rock score three times in the bottom of the fourth to take a 4-3 lead.

SRU added three more runs in the bottom of the sixth to push its lead to 7-3 before Gannon scored once in the top of the seventh to set the final margin.

Howard singled, stole second and scored on DiRuscia's double to account for SRU's first run.

Back-to-back singles by Jury and Billy Messer, Kosik's two-run double and Caito's two-bagger accounted for The Rock's fourth-inning tallies.

The Rock manufactured its sixth-inning runs from a Walck single, two sacrifice bunts, a bases-loaded walk to Howard, Haponski being hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and a fielder's choice by DiRuscia.