Box Score

WASHINGTON, Pa. - The Mercyhurst University baseball team, playing without six of its nine opening day starters, still saw its winning streak hit nine straight games with a 5-2 victory over Penn State Greater Allegheny on Tuesday afternoon at CONSOL Energy Park in Washington, Pa. The Lakers, who started the season 4-7, improved to 13-7 with the victory. The Lions dropped to 7-8 overall.

Mercyhurst, ranked sixth in the latest Atlantic Regional rankings, got strong pitching again on Tuesday, as five Laker hurlers combined to allow two unearned runs on seven hits in the nine-inning affair. Junior Braedon Pennington pitched the first four innings and allowed three hits while striking out six. Junior Jon Corbi picked up his first victory in a Mercyhurst uniform, going the next three innings and allowing two hits while striking out three.

Juniors Adam Curyto and Dan Parker, along with freshman Ben Nolan, pitched the final two innings to seal the victory. Nolan pitched a perfect ninth inning for his first collegiate save.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the sixth inning when Mercyhurst finally broke through with three runs off Lions' reliever Kevin Silvio. Senior Zak Blair started the inning with a leadoff single and then promptly stole second base. After an infield single by freshman Joel Yeagley, sophomore Jake Marinelli drove home Blair with a single for the first run of the contest. Yeagley would score on an error by Greater Allegheny's shortstop, Luke Koshinsky, giving Mercyhurst a 2-0 advantage. Freshman Jake Hall drove home the final run of the inning, beating out a potential double play to score Marinelli.

Mercyhurst would add two more runs in the bottom of the seventh on a pair of sacrifice flies by Yeagley and Marinelli.

Greater Allegheny plated both of its runs in the eighth inning, both charged against Curyto. The junior lefthander allowed a hit and a walk in the three batters he faced before Parker replaced him. Parker gave up a single to Adam Wehr, loading the bases with one out. Tyler Kugler came up and hit a ball back to the mound that Parker threw away, allowing two runs to score. He would get the final two batters of the inning to make the runs unearned.

Nolan got two groundouts and a strikeout in a perfect ninth inning.

Blair, again, led the Lakers at the dish, going 3-for-4 with two runs scored and a stolen base. He is batting .466 this season (34-for-73) with 17 runs scored in 20 games. Marinelli went 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs to help the Laker offense.

Alente Johnson and Oliver Girman had two hits apiece for Greater Allegheny.

Mercyhurst will enter PSAC play this weekend with home-and-home doubleheaders against California (Pa.). The Vulcans will have the home games on Friday and then the teams will convene at the Mercyhurst Baseball Field on Saturday, March 23 for a 1:00 p.m. twinbill.