Box Score ERIE, Pa. - The Mercyhurst University baseball team, hoping to get a berth into the NCAA Tournament, played its final game of the season before Selection Show Sunday and blanked the Lions of Penn State Greater Allegheny by a 6-0 final on Friday afternoon at the Mercyhurst Baseball Field. Game two of the scheduled doubleheader was cancelled due to heavy rains in the area. The Lakers moved to 30-13 overall while the Lions dropped to 30-10 on the season.
Mercyhurst reached the 30-win plateau for the fourth consecutive season and the fifth time in the last six years. Meanwhile, the shutout was the Lakers' 12th of the season - leading all NCAA Division II programs in that category.
Junior
Dan Altavilla started the contest and tossed the first five innings and extended his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 26.2 after allowing four hits and a walk in his outing. The righthander struck out 11 - the eighth time in 11 starts that he has recorded at least 10 punchouts in a start. He improved to 9-0 on the season and lowered his earned run average to 1.10 win the win.
Altavilla now has 118 strikeouts on the season, increasing his school-record total. Former southpaw Nick Gillung held the previous record with 102 during the 2011 season. Gillung was later drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals.
Mercyhurst provided all of the offense Altavilla would need in the bottom of the first inning when the Lakers plated three runs against Penn State Greater Allegheny starter, Zach Krivda. Sophomore
Dan Popio drove home the first run of the game with a double down the left field line, scoring junior
Angel Martinez. It was Popio's team-leading 15th double of the season and his team-leading 41st run batted in. Sophomore
Dan Karstedt followed with a two-run single to right to drive home both Popio and sophomore
Brendan Cox to cap off the scoring.
Altavilla ran into trouble in the third when the Lions loaded the bases with one out. However, the Laker righthander struck out the #3 hitter, Jose Pablo Bonilla, and the cleanup hitter, Francisco Del Rio, to keep the Lions off the scoreboard.
The Laker offense responded with their final three runs of the game in the bottom half of the inning. Cox doubled to left center to drive home Martinez after he led off the inning with a single. Senior
Joe Pantano followed, later in the inning, with an RBI single to right and then later scored on a wild pitch.
Sophomore
Jake Hall slammed the door in the final two innings, allowing one hit while striking out four.
Cox went 3-for-3 with a pair of runs scored while Karstedt had the first multiple-hit game of his career. He went 2-for-3 with a pair of runs batted in.
The Lakers, ranked fourth in the latest NCAA regional rankings, will have their eyes glued to the selection show on NCAA.com to see if their season will continue into the NCAA tournament. The selection show is scheduled for Sunday, May 11 at 10:00 p.m.
