Boxscore

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- The Slippery Rock University baseball team gave sixth-ranked West Chester all it could handle Wednesday afternoon in opening-round action of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference tournament at Point Stadium but could not pull off the upset.

West Chester scored its third and final unearned run in the bottom of the sixth inning and then made that tally stand up as the difference in a 7-6 decision.

In the process, the Golden Rams (36-10) moved into Thursday's 3:30 p.m. winners bracket game against California (Pa.) and dropped The Rock (25-22) into Thursday 9:30 a.m. elimination game against Mansfield.

California (29-16) erased a 5-0 deficit and scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning to win a 6-5 decision over Mansfield (32-16) in Wednesday's firist opening-round game.

Early on in Wednesday's game, it appeared The Rock would cruise to victory as SRU scored four runs on four hits in the top of the first inning. A two-run double by junior catcher Mitchell Monas plated the first runs of the game before a single by junior shortstop Adam Jury and a triple by freshman third baseman Jamison Walck each pushed across a single run.

Walck finished the game with three hits in four at bats and two RBIs, while Monas was 2-for-4 with two doubles, two RBIs and two runs scored.

But West Chester, the top hitting team in the 14-team conference (.352), came right back with four runs on three hits in the bottom of the first to tie the score at 4-4.

Undaunted, The Rock responded with an unearned run in the top of the second to take a 5-4 lead.

That advantage stood until the bottom of the fourth, when West Chester took advantage of a potential inning-ending ground ball was mishandled by Jury and a throwing error on a subsequent stolen base attempt to score two runs and take its first lead of the game, 6-5.

Again undaunted, The Rock tied the score at 6-6 with a run in the top of the fifth. Key hits in the rally were a leadoff double by Monas, his second two-bagger of the game, and a single by Walck that gave him two RBIs in the game.

West Chester then ended the nip-and-tuck affair with its game-winning run in the bottom of the sixth.

The eventual winning run reached base when losing pitcher Joby Lapkowicz, while covering first base on a ground ball to the right side of the infield, dropped an underhand toss from junior first baseman Derek DiRuscia. Instead of being the second out of the inning, that baserunner sprinted around the bases and scored on a double by the next hitter, Kyle Orensky.

Lapkowicz was tagged with what would have be characterized as a "tough-luck" loss in relief of Rock starting pitcher Zach Jeney.

Jeney, staked to a 4-0 lead by his teammates in the top of the first inning, allowed four earned runs on three hits, struck out one and walked two in only one-third of an inning in the bottom of the first.

Lapkowicz then entered the game and pretty much shut down the West Chester offense the rest of the game, as evidenced by the fact the Golden Rams did not score an unearned run off the freshman southpaw.

Lapkowicz, who saw his season record fall to 2-5, ended the game with three unearned runs allowed on five hits, struck out five and walked five in seven and two-thirds innings.

The Rock outhit West Chester by an 8-7 margin.

Notes

SRU, as it seeks to extend its season one more day, will also look to avenge a pair of regular-season losses to Mansfield. The Mounties swept a March 30 twinbill in Mansfield by 5-1 and 14-8 scores ... The Rock is in the conference tournament for the fifth straight season and 20th time in 25 seasons under head coach Jeff Messer ... Wednesday's game marked the 16th time this season Walck had at least two hits in a game and the 11th time Monas had a multiple-hit game ... Walck, a strong candidate for the PSAC-Western Division "Rookie of the Year" honor, has had multiple RBIs in six games while Monas has picked up two or more RBIs seven times this season ... DiRuscia, Jury and Walck each extended their current hitting streaks to six games ... Senior second baseman Billy Messer saw a six-game hitting streak come to an end Wednesday, while sophomore left fielder Carter Haponski had a five-game streak snapped.