Erie, Pa. - Mercyhurst baseball welcomed Indiana (Pa.) to town for their final two home games of the regular season Thursday afternoon with the Lakers coming away with a win in game one 8-1 before falling 3-1 in game two.
How it Happened
After a scoreless first inning, the Lakers managed to get on the board in the second thanks to a long ball for Mitchell Grosch, getting his second in as many games to make it 1-0. Mercyhurst added on in the third with a crooked number as a double from Luke Jackson drove in one while Chris Juchno followed a pitch later with a two-run single, 4-0. From there, the Lakers added one more in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a single off the left field wall from John Susnik to make it 5-0 and give the Laker pitching staff all the production they needed.
Corbin Foy took the ball for the Lakers with the senior righty going five innings while allowing just three hits and no runs. It looked like the Crimson Hawks were going to break through in their half of the fifth as they two runners in scoring position, but a soft fly ball to left ended the threat. Foy was followed by Ben Berdine who ended up giving up one in the sixth before the Lakers added some insurance in the sixth with three runs, 8-1. From there, Berdine was able to keep things right there and help his team secure the win.
Game two began with IUP able to score the first run of the game as a RBI triple from their cleanup hitter made it 1-0. After a couple of scoreless frames from the Lakers, they managed to tie things up in the third thanks to Jayden Walker. Mercyhurst's first baseman went the opposite way and sent one over the left center field wall, 1-1.
It looked like the Lakers were going to break through in the fifth as they were able to get two runners on. A lead-off walk from Grosch was followed up by Jayden Walker who reached on an error up the middle to put Grosch on second. From there, IUP managed to work out of trouble and keep it a 1-1 game as Grosch was picked off second followed by a fly ball to end the threat. The Crimson Hawks finally broke through with a run in the sixth, taking a 2-1 lead into the final frame. After getting a couple of runners on, an error on the infield for the Lakers allowed the run to come across before they stopped the bleeding.
Mercyhurst tried to get something going on offense in their final frame with the middle of the order up, but were turned away once again by the stellar pitching from the Crimson Hawks in the two-run loss.
Highlights
Mitchell Grosch led the way on offense for the Lakers with four hits in the game, having each of those in game one as he went 4-4 with a home run and three RBIs. Jayden Walker was the lone Laker to come up with multiple extra base hits on the day as he had a double in game one while hitting his second home run of year in game two for the lone run, and hit, of the game for Mercyhurst. On the mound, Corbin Foy dealt through five innings, giving up no runs and was followed by an equally impressive outing from Ryan Rafalski in game two who went 5.2 innings, giving up one run on four hits.
Next Game
Mercyhurst finishes out the regular season tomorrow as they head to IUP to see the Crimson Hawks. The Lakers and IUP are set to begin game one at 1:00 p.m. with game two scheduled to begin 30 minutes after the last out.
