Washington, Pa.—The Lakers picked up a Friday sweep of the Cal (PA) Vulcans to earn Head Coach Joe Spano his 700th and 701st career wins. The Lakers took game one 10-3 and won 4-3 in eight innings in game two.
Game One (W, 10-3)
The Lakers opened the scoring in the top of the first inning as Josh Surowiec doubled to left center that drove in Matthew Gibson and Casimer Sobaszek who both got on base to open the game.
In the bottom half of the inning Cal (PA) responded with a run of their own to cut the Laker lead in half.
Chris Juchno built the Laker lead back to two in the third inning as he drove in Surowiec from third. After a John Susnik walk loaded the bases, Troy Banks was hit by a pitch to bring in Luke Jackson from third to make it 4-1 after the top of the third inning.
Neither team scored again until the seventh inning. Jackson started the inning with a walk and Jack Elliott followed with a walk of his own. After Cal brought in a new pitch, Chris Juchno drew a walk to load the bases. Troy Banks singled up the middle that scored Elliott and Brandon Arnold who pinch ran earlier in the inning. Following Banks' single, Gibson walked to load the bases for the second time in the inning. Surowiec stepped up and blasted a 1-0 pitch over the left field fence to make it 10-1.
Cal scored twice in the seventh but couldn't chip into the Laker lead any further.
Jarrett Heilman went the full game on the mound for the Lakers, he allowed six hits and just one earned run. He struckout seven and lowered his season ERA to 2.48 and now has 49 strikeouts in 36.1 innings.
Game Two (W, 4-3)
Surowiec picked up where he left off in game one as he drove in Gibson in the first inning with an opposite field single.
Neither team scored again until the fifth inning as the Lakers doubled their lead to 2-0. Banks singled to center field and brought home Elliott after he was hit by a pitch to open the inning.
Cal scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 3-2 lead after five innings.
Following Cal taking the lead the Lakers tied the ballgame in the sixth. Sobaszek walked to start the inning and Surowiec followed with a single, Sobaszek went first to third on the play. After a pitching change Jackson flew out to center which brought Sobaszek home to tie the game.
Jackson came in clutch in the top of the eighth inning as he singled through the left side drive in Gibson with the go ahead run to make it 4-3.
John Bufford Jr. started on the bump and went five full innings. He allowed just one earned run while striking out three and getting nine groundball outs. Jacob Bazala took over for the sixth and allowed just three hits while recording a strikeout and five groundouts in three innings.
Coaching Legend
Joe Spano became the 25th active coach to win 700 games and the 19th coach to do it with one program. He is also just the second PSAC head coach to accomplish the feat.
Up Next
The Lakers and Vulcans come to Erie tomorrow for a twinbill starting at one o'clock.
