Mercyhurst 7, East Stroudsburg 2

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- Adam Gray's second three-run homer in as many days helped propel Mercyhurst College to a 7-2 victory over East Stroudsburg in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championship tournament Thursday afternoon.

The Lakers (26-21) remain alive in the loser's bracket after dropping the first game of the tournament to No. 15 Kutztown yesterday.  Meanwhile, East Stroudsburg (26-20) is eliminated after its second loss.

Mercyhurst will now face the loser of tonight's 6:30 p.m. contest between Kutztown and IUP at 12:30 p.m. on Friday.

Gray's hot day at the plate (2-for-5, 2 R, 3 RBI), along with Justin Urschel's perfect day at the dish (4-for-4, 2 R, RBI) was part of a nine-hit attack for the Lakers.

Mercyhurst opened with a run in the top of the first, followed by Gray's homer in the third and another run in the fourth to take a commanding 5-0 lead before starter Ben Rawding allowed East Stroudsburg its only runs of the game in the sixth inning.  Rawding went 6 1/3 innings in his fifth victory of the season while striking out two.

Joe Cochran closed out the game for Rawding, going 2 2/3 innings and allowing just two hits.

The Lakers added two more insurance runs in the top of the ninth off of Colin Kelly, who threw five innings in relief of starter Brian Ernst.  Ernst takes the loss for the Warriors, giving up five runs, four earned on six hits.

Mercyhurst put its first run across when leadoff man Craig Denman singled and came around to score on a wild pitch.  

In the second, Urschel singled to start the inning and two batters later Trey Bennett reached on catcher's interference before Gray homered on an 0-1 count.

Urschel followed Gray's home run with one of his own in the fourth before Bill Gerstenslager's RBI-single highlighted the Lakers scoring in the ninth.