After suffering a 6-1 loss in Thursday's PSAC West doubleheader opener at Point Stadium, Pitt-Johnstown erased a 2-0 deficit with nine runs in the bottom of the sixth, including
Asher Corl's three-run home run, to get the split with a 9-5 victory in the nightcap. The Mountain Cats are now 14-25 overall and 7-11 in conference-play.
In game one, IUP strung together a pair of extra base hits and a single up the to start the game and jump out to a 2-0 lead.
Two-runs homers from Elijah Dunn and David Kessler in the Crimson Hawks' third made it 6-0, before
Jake Ansell's one-out, solo homer to left in the Pitt-Johnstown half of the third got the Mountain Cats on the scoreboard.
The Mountain Cats couldn't get any closer and IUP starter Jeremiah Williams improved to 3-4 after holding the Mountain Cats to the one run on four hits over the first six innings.
Ansell went 2-for-3 with a homer, while
Josh Ulery,
Mario Disso, and
Alex Glumac all collected hits for Pitt-Johnstown.
Ben Briggs got the start for the Mountain Cats and went the first 5.1 innings. Briggs allowed six runs (3 earned) on six hits, while striking out four and walking one.
In game two, Dunn's two-out RBI double in the top of the first gave the Crimson Hawks the early lead.
It stayed that way until the top of the sixth when Davin Landers scored on Kessler's fielder's choice to put IUP up 2-0.
However, Pitt-Johnstown exploded for nine runs in the bottom of the sixth. The Mountain Cats put runners on first and third with one out and Corl crushed a long three-run homer to left center to put the Mountain Cats in front, 3-2. Still with one out,
Josh Reynolds delivered an RBI single, and
Dylan Broderick was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to make it 5-2. Pitt-Johnstown then added a two-run double from Ansell and a two-run single from Ulery that pushed it out to 9-2.
The Crimson Hawks came back with three unearned runs in the top of the seventh, but that was as close as it would get.
Along with Corl's three-run homer, Ansell had a double, and single, and two RBI, while Reynolds went 2-for-3 with an RBI for the Mountain Cats.
Rodney Shultz started and improved to 5-2 after holding IUP to two runs on seven hits over the first six innings.
With the split, the Crimson Hawks are now 16-23 overall and 8-10 in the PSAC West.
Pitt-Johnstown will close out the series against IUP with a doubleheader in Indiana on Friday, before traveling to California (PA) for two conference games on April 28. The Mountain Cats will return home to the Point Stadium to finish the series with the Vulcans on April 29.
