SLIPPERY ROCK — Sean Holliday got the ground ball he was looking for.

The result he got proved disastrous.

Locked in a scoreless tie with Shippensburg in the top of the third inning Saturday at Critchfield Park, the Slippery Rock University left-hander faced Red Raider leadoff hitter Tyler Redick with runners on first and second, one out.

Redick hit a hard ground ball to second baseman Billy Messer, who fielded it near the bag — a tailor-made double play. Messer flipped the ball to shortstop Phil Butch, who dropped it.

A five-run rally followed and Shippensburg bounced SRUfrom the PSACTournament by a 7-1 count. The Red Raiders defeated California, 18-6, later in the day to win the tourney and gain an automatic berth in the North Atlantic Regional Tournament scheduled May 17-19.

"That play deflated us,"SRUcoach Jeff Messer said. "I know people will say we only scored one run, but it changed the whole mood of this game.

"Phil Butch is our senior leader. He gets us going. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him. You count on guys like that to make plays. It's just one of those things that can happen.

"The play was so easy. ... He just dropped it,"Messer added.

Holliday had retired the first seven batters he faced and the double play would have ended the inning. Instead, the bases were loaded and a walk to Eric Perlozzo forced in a run. Justin Garber followed with a sacrifice fly and a walk to Scott Goss loaded the bases again.

Messer pulled Holliday and inserted Craig Misiewicz on the mound.

"Mentally, emotionally, he was done,"Messer said of Holliday.

Kasey Kuhns drilled the first offering from Misiewicz inside the third base bag and into the left-field corner for a three-run double. In effect, Slippery Rock was done as well.

"We wanted a curve ball there and it was a fastball down the middle,"Messer said. "The hitter was sitting dead red on a fastball."

The Red Raiders added two more runs in the fourth inning, that frame getting started by Rock third baseman Billy Herman mishandling a ground ball.

"You have to take advantage of opportunities when they're presented to you offensively,"Shippensburg coach Matt Jones said. "That's something we hadn't been doing in this tournament before today."

Senior right-hander Frank D'Agostino took care of the rest for Shippensburg, tossing a complete-game and allowing only five hits. The Rock's lone run came on a solo homer by Rich Michalek — his first of the year — in the fifth.

Besides the homer, SRUmanaged just four singles. Only two Rock runners reached second base all day. D'Agostino threw 134 pitches, 83 for strikes.

"We had two complete-games in this tournament,"Jones said. "Frank's a senior and a guy like that is expected to go out there and perform. We still have three starting pitchers to choose from for this last game."

Shippebnsburg used three pitchers — and a 19-hit attack against six California hurlers — to win the championship. Perlozzo and Brandon White had four hits each against the Vulcans and Kuhns had five RBI, giving him eight for the day.

"Shippensburg is here because of its pitching,"Messer said. "You know you're not going to score many runs against them. That's why giving up a five-run inning early was so tough."

Saturday's loss left The Rock at 8-8 at home this season. SRUis 25-7 at neutral sites or on the road. The team remains hopeful of an at-large bid for the North Atlantic Regional.

SRUentered the PSACtourney ranked fifth in the region and defeated No. 2 and 3 California and West Chester in the conference tournament. The top eight teams in the region play in the regional.

"There's no reason why we shouldn't be invited,"Messer said. "But we controlled our own fate going into today and we gave that up."

Shippensburg 005 200 000—7 8 1Slippery Rock 000 010 000—1 5 2Frank D'Agostino (W, 6k, 2bb) and Sean Killian; Sean Holliday (L, 2k, 2bb), Craig Misiewicz (3, 6k, 2bb), Mike DeCola (8, 2k, 1bb) and Matt Adams.

Shippensburg (26-22): Tyler Redick 1BRBI, Eric Perlozzo 2-1B2-RBI, Justin Garber RBI, Scott Goss 1B, Kasey Kuhns 2B3-RBI, Scott Stern 1B2-R, Eric Dezell 2B 1B2-R

Slippery Rock (33-15): Phil Butch 1B, Matt Adams 1B, M.J. Parsons 1B, Travis Trimbur 1B, Rich Michalek HR