Erie, Pa. - Mercyhurst Baseball made the short trip across town to play the Golden Knights with the Lakers coming away with a pair of wins. They are now 15-6 overall on the year with a 9-1 mark in the PSAC with wins in each of their last six. A late rally in game one led them to an 11-0 win while they had to fight in the 5-3 victory in game two as they look for the four-game sweep tomorrow.
How it Happened
Game One
Things were quiet in game one to begin with neither team able to crack the scoreboard through the first five innings. Jarrett Heilman took the mound for the Lakers fresh off winning the PSAC Pitcher of the Week award and looks to make a run at repeating as he threw his second straight shutout with eight strikeouts to his line.
After being held scoreless going into the sixth, a Lucas Folmar double to right field broke things open for Mercyhurst with them taking the lead at 1-0.
His was the first of two extra-base hits in the inning with Matt Christopher getting his second triple of the year, scoring two and making it a 4-0 game.
After the Golden Knights were set down in order in the bottom half of the stanza, Mercyhurst got back to work with six runs in the top of the seventh to make this a lop-sided affair. The biggest hit of that canto came courtesy of Eric Chorba who hit a grand slam over the left field wall to make it 11-0 as the Lakers had grabbed ahold of all the momentum in the blowout win.
Game Two
Mercyhurst did not wait around all too long to claim the advantage in the backend of the doubleheader as Christopher sent the first pitch of the game over the left field wall for his first home run of the season.
It was a strong third inning that helped Mercyhurst stake themselves to a big lead with them plating four runs in the frame, taking a 5-0 lead into the middle stanzas. Chris Juchno joined the home run party with one of his own to get the scoring started, scoring both he and Vincent Stutz, to make it 3-0.
He was followed up by Lucas Folmar who got his second RBI double of the game, scoring Zachary Kourous and Luke Jackson.
After being shut down through the first four frames, Gannon managed to scratch across one run in the bottom of the fifth. They did so again in the sixth and threatened to pull off the comeback in the final inning. Laker hurler Ben Berdine entered the game in the sixth and did his part in helping secure the win. He did so with some traffic on the bases with three runners left on in the sixth and seventh, but the sophomore reliever came through to secure the two-run win.
Highlights
Eric Chorba finished the day 5-9 with a double and a home run to his line. Game one of the day proved to be a big one for the sophomore as he finished 4-5 with five RBIs to his ledger, including the four from his grand slam. Jarrett Heilman was once again lights out on the bump, pitching his second-straight complete game shutout. The junior gave up five hits over seven innings while fanning eight and lowering his season ERA to 1.58. Jacob Bazala took the ball in game two and did his part with 5.0 strong innings in an outing where he did not allow a hit until the fifth while matching Heilman's strikeout total.
Next Game
The Lakers return home tomorrow for a pair of games against Gannon to wrap up the series with first pitch set for 1:00 p.m.
