JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- The Mercyhurst baseball team collected 32 hits during its two wins over Pittsburgh-Johnstown on Saturday. The Lakers won game one, 8-2, and then game two in extra innings, 12-11.

Individual game recaps are below.

Game One: Mercyhurst 8, Pittsburgh-Johnstown 2
All nine hitters in Mercryhurst's starting lineup had at least one hit during the contest, including Hank Morrison, who batted 3-for-4 with a double, two runs and one RBI. As a team, the Lakers had 16 hits.

Daniel Elliott went 2-for-3 with three RBI while Cameron Balego, Brendan Cox, Collin Fantaskey (double) and Jimmy Latona (double) had 2-for-4 games. Fantaskey and Latona also had RBI while Balego scored two runs. Sabatino DiNardo III doubled and drove in two runs.

Joe Gnacinski was the winning pitcher in five innings of work. He gave up two runs on three hjits while recording three strikeouts and three walks. Jamie Lauria tossed two scoreless innings of relief.

Mercyhurst took a 4-0 led in the first inning and never looked back. Morrison had an RBI single, Elliott ripped a two-run single and DiNardo hammered an RBI double.

Fantaskey pushed the Laker led ot 5-0 with an RBI single during the fifth before UPJ countered with its only two runs in the bottom half of the frame.

The Lakers plated the game's last three runs in the sixth on an Elliott single, DiNardo sacrifice fly and Latona double.


Game Two: Mercyhurst 12, Pittsburgh-Johnstown 11 (8 innings)
The Lakers collected 16 hits and clawed back from a 6-1 deficit to win 12-11 in eight innings and escape with the regular-season sweep over UPJ. Eight of nine starters had at least one hit in the game.

Balego (double) and Cox (stolen base) went 3-for-4 with one RBI each. Cox scored three runs; Balego scored twice.

Alonge (double) and Gonzalez (double) went 2-for-4 as Alonge collected three RBI while Gonzalez had two.

Latona (double) went 2-for-3 with three RBI, Morrison batted 2-for-5, Fantaskey doubled and Elliott scored two runs.

Alonge plated the game's first run in the first inning on a groundout before the host Mountain Cats scored six runs in the second to takea  6-1 lead.

The Lakers chipped away at their deficit, scoring three runs in the third, one in the fourth and then five in the fifth to take a 9-7 lead. Gonzalez had a two-run single and Balego smacked an RBI double in the third before Alonge drove a sac fly in the fourth.

During the fifth, Latona had a sac fly and Balego scored on a game-tying wild pitch before Cox and Alonge hit RBI singles. Latona added another sac fly in the sixth, increasing the Laker advantage to 10-7 before the host Cats tied the contest at 10-all in the home half of the sixth.

DiNardo gave Mercyhurst the lead with a sac fly in the eighth and Latona followed with an RBI single. UPJ then scored once in the bottom half -- and had two runners on base -- before Mercyhurst finished off the win.

Matthew Minnick started on the hill for Mercyhurst, but struggled before he was relieved by Ben Nolan, who worked four innings of relief. Chris Vallimont earned the win and Jake Hall got the save.

Dillon Boyer went 3-for-3 with three runs, one double and one RBI for UPJ (13-22, 6-12). Tyler Black was the losing pitcher.

The Lakers (26-9, 16-4) will be in action next on Tuesday when they host Notre Dame (Ohio) for a 2 p.m. non-conference game.