SRU fades from PSAC West race with twinbill loss to Cal

By JOHN ENRIETTO Eagle Sports Editor

April 12, 2004 Last Updated: January 06, 2005 12:14 PM College

SLIPPERY ROCK - Slippery Rock University's baseball team finds itself in unfamiliar territory - and veteran coach Jeff Messer isn't smiling about it.

SRU's 4-1, 4-2 doubleheader loss to California (Pa.) Saturday at Critchfield Park dropped it into fourth place in the PSAC West.

The Rock has dropped eight of 10 games and is five games out of a PSAC playoff spot with eight league games remaining.

"We have to play good baseball the rest of the way and we need a whole lot of help," Messer said of reaching the playoffs. "We're not playing very good baseball right now, so there's no sense worrying about the second part of the equation.

"We don't like losing around here. We're playing for pride now and, quite honestly, to see who deserves to be on this team next year."

SRU has not finished as low as fourth in the PSAC West since 1994. The Rock will likely miss the conference playoffs for only the third time in 14 years.

The tone for Saturday's twin losses was set early in the first game. SRU stranded the bases loaded in the first and second innings.

California starting and winning pitcher Jim Samolovitch walked seven and hit a batter in five innings - but SRU managed just one run.

"It's been that way all year," Messer said. "We're hitting fine with nobody on base. We've been working on situational hitting in practice and we're Hall of Famers then, but we haven't been able to get it done in the games."

SRU stranded 15 runners in the two games. The Vulcans stranded seven.

California's big blow in the first game came from No. 9 batter Lee Petersavage, a .223 hitter. He fell behind 0-2 against Rock pitcher John Katich before drilling a two-out, two-run double down the right field line.

In the second game, the Vulcans snapped a 1-1 tie in the seventh, courtesy of SRU's only two fielding errors all day.

Mike Larson reached on a two-base error by second baseman Trent Berner to start the inning. Tim Donnelly and Patrick Sadler followed with singles, plating Larson and chasing SRU starting pitcher Derek Blyzwick.

Blyzwick allowed just one earned run and four hits in six-plus innings on the mound.

"Derek deserved to win and John pitched well enough for us to win," Messer said.

Colin Scott came out of SRU's bullpen and looked like he was going to escape further damage. A pair of infield outs were followed by a ball hit back to the mound.

Scott lobbed the ball toward first base, the throw landing in the dirt and scooting under first baseman Billy Wolfe's glove, allowing two more runs to score.

"Everything just broke perfectly for us today," California coach Mike Conte said.

SRU rallied in the bottom of the seventh, but Matt Kozusko struck out to end the game with the tying runs on base.

Ian Heisel got saves in both games for the Vulcans, who won despite starting pitchers with earned run averages of 4.25 and 5.30, respectively.

"Our pitchers came up big against a very good baseball team," Conte said.

California - 5-12 at one point - has won 17 of its last 21 games and is 10-2 in the PSAC West, one game behind Shippensburg. Indiana (Pa.) is third in the league at 6-6.

SRU has slipped to 21-17 overall, 5-7 in PSAC West play.

"We played a very tough schedule down in Alabama to begin the season," Conte said. "Our kids believe in themselves and were prepared to succeed in this conference."

"We're not going to quit," Messer said. "We'll play as hard in our last 20 games as we did in our first 40. We may change our approach, though, and work some other players into the lineup.

"We have a lot of nice kids on this team and a lot of talent, but we need to find more bulldogs, more warriors. We don't seem to have enough of that type of player this year."

First Game

California 021 010 0 - 4 6 0

Slippery Rock 010 000 0 - 1 4 0

WP:

Jim Samolovitch (5 IP) 5 strikeouts, 7 walks.

LP:

John Katich (7 IP) 4 strikeouts, 4 walks

California:

Jason Smith HR 1B, Mike Larson 1B RBI, Patrick Sadler 2B 1B, Lee Petersavage 2B 2 RBI

Slippery Rock:

Nathan Statzer 2B 1B RBI, Matt Kozusko 1B, Joe Pascarella 1B

Second Game