May 16, 2005

Contact: Bob McComas (724) 738-2777; robert.mccomas@sru.edu

THURSDAY GAME DELAYED BY RAIN; PICKS UP TODAY  -- For details: Click here

ROCK BASEBALL TEAM RECEIVES BERTH IN REGIONAL TOURNAMENT

SRU will face host West Virginia State at 4 p.m. Thursday

           SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University baseball team will open NCAA Division II North Atlantic Regional baseball tournament action at 4 p.m. Thursday in Institute, W. Va.

           The Rock (31-13) received the No. 4 seed in the four-team tournament and will face the tournament’s top-seeded team, West Virginia State (40-14), in first-round action on WVSU’s home field, Cal Bailey Field.

           The other opening-round game (4 p.m.) will pit No. 2 seed West Chester (36-12) against third-seeded and defending regional champion Kutztown (38-16).

           The winners of Thursday’s games will meet in the winners bracket final at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, while the first-round losers tangle at 9 a.m. in an elimination game. The third and final game of the second day of tournament action is scheduled for 4 p.m. and will pit Friday’s 12:30 p.m. loser against the winner of Friday’s 9 a.m. game.

           The regional championship game will be played at 12:30 p.m. Saturday with the “if-needed” game to follow at approximately 4 p.m.

           All The Rock games from the regional tournament will be broadcast live on the Internet at www.rockathletics.com.

    The North Atlantic Regional champion will join winners from seven other regional competitions in the Division II national tournament May 28-June 4 in Montgomery, Ala.

           The Rock is making its 12^th trip to NCAA regional competition and 11^th in Jeff Messer’s 20 seasons as SRU’s head coach.

           SRU has won four regional titles under Messer’s guidance, the most recent coming in 2003 when the tournament was played at Jack Critchfield Park in Slippery Rock.

    The Rock also won regional titles in 1989, 1997 and 2000. SRU finished third in the 1989 national tournament and placed fifth in the 2000 national tournament.

     SRU earned this year’s regional berth by winning seven of its final nine regular-season games and claiming a share of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division championship.

    The division title was the 16^th won by The Rock since Messer assumed the head coaching reins in 1986.

    West Virginia State won this year’s West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship, while Kutztown beat West Chester in the PSAC title game.

    The Rock did not compete in the PSAC tournament this year as a result of being the “odd team out” in tiebreaker criteria to determine the PSAC-West’s three playoff participants.

# ROCK PRIDE #