Point Park, No. 25 IU Southeast split RSC Baseball Games of the Week series
By Point Park Sports Information
PITTSBURGH -- Point Park University stayed in first place in the standings 1.0 game ahead of No. 25 IU Southeast after the Pioneers and Grenadiers split the River States Conference Baseball Games of the Week series. Saturday's results had IU Southeast win the opener, 1-0, and then Point Park remain in first place with a 4-1 victory in the nightcap.
Saturday's opener had the only run come in on Julian Flannary's solo homer in the fifth inning. He lauched a drive over the right-center field fence to break up the 0-0 tie.
Point Park starter Amiel Abreu went all seven innings with the only blemish coming on Flannary's homer, He gave up just four hits, struck out four and walked none. He retired the Grenadiers in order in three different innings and never allowed more than one runner on base in any inning. With an errorless defense behind him and no walks issued, there were just four base runners against him, including the home run.
IU Southeast starter John Cecil did his part in the pitcher's duel as he went 6.2 strong innings. Gage Rogers came in to get the final out with runners at first and third as he and Cecil combined on the shutout. Cecil gave up just three hits during his outing, struck out five, and his only walk put runners at the corners in the seventh. But Rogers struck out Logan Linder to preserve the 1-0 victory.
Point Park was kept off the scoreboard but had a potential run 90 feet away three different times during the game. But the IU Southeast defense and Cecil shut the door with a couple of diving stops on the infield to take away potential RBI hits from Stefan Mrkonja in the third and Linder in the fifth.
A double by Chris Hernandez and a fly ball to right field by Manny Lopez had a runner to third with one out in the Point Park seventh. But the Grenadiers infield pulled in to cut off the potential tying run for out No. 2, and Rogers followed with his ending strikeout.
The second game had IU Southeast get an unearned run in the top of the first, but that was all the Grenadiers got. Lead-off batter Richard Rodriguez reached on an error, stole second, moved to third on a groundout to the right side and scored on Hector Marmol's sacrifice fly. That came against Point Park starter Logan Linder, who pitched two innings, gave up one hit and no earned runs.
The Point Park offense stayed quiet in the early going versus IU Southeast starter Brandon Nylin, who kept his team in front, 1-0, until the fourth inning. That's when the Pioneers went ahead on Erik Montero's single up the middle with two outs. There were two hits and a walk in the inning. The earlier hit was from Manny Lopez, who moved into scoring position on a throw to the plate.
Point Park's Addison Domingo earned the victory in five innings of relief work. He came in the game in the third, and after his team went ahead, he held onto the lead. Domingo retired the first 10 batters he faced as Rodriguez's double with one out in the sixth was the first hit he gave up. But Rodriguez was cut down on a groundout to short on the next play to end the threat.
A hit batter and two singles in the IU Southeast seventh had Domingo in a jam, but he got the final out via a strikeout to finish off the win. He ended up with five shutout innings giving up three hits, striking out four and walking none. He earned two wins during the series, and his line for the series had 7.0 innings, four hits, one run, no walks and seven strikeouts.
Point Park padded the lead to 4-1 with a couple of insurance runs in the fifth and sixth. The fifth inning had two walks come right before Chris Hernandez's RBI single with two outs. In the sixth, an infield hit by Cole Horew and a double to the wall in left by Yuri Sucart set things up for a run to score on an infield error.
Nylin threw all six innings for IU Southeast with six hits, four walks and three strikeouts on his day. Three of the four runs he gave up were earned.
With a 1.0 game lead for first place with four games to play, Point Park finishes out its conference schedule hosting Brescia for a four-game series next Friday and Saturday. IU Southeast plays at Cincinnati Christian to finish out. Third-place Rio Grande (20-7-1 RSC) is just 1.5 games back of first place and finishes up at Asbury.
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