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SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Slippery
Rock University’s Joe Pascarella, a junior
catcher/designated hitter from New Castle (Shenango
HS), was named Monday as the Pennsylvania State Athletic
Conference-Western Division baseball “Player of the
Week.”
Pascarella hit .533 (8-for-15) with five
doubles and five RBI to help the nationally ranked Rock to a 4-0
week with doubleheader sweeps of Edinboro and California.
In the
doubleheader at Edinboro, he was 5-for-8 with four doubles and
three RBI.
Game time
change – The starting time for The Rock’s
Sunday (April 27) doubleheader vs. Bloomfield (N.J.) College at
Jack Critchfield Park has been changed from 5 p.m. to 1 p.m.
National
rankings – The Rock (33-8) earned its highest
regular-season rankings ever this week when it garnered the No. 10
spot in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America NCAA
Division II national poll and the No. 11 spot in the Collegiate
Baseball magazine national poll.
The Rock was
ranked No. 1 in the initial North Atlantic Regional poll released
on April 9 and should hold onto that elite position when the latest
rankings are released on Wednesday.
PSAC
pacesetters – SRU is 12-2 in PSAC-West action and
holds a four-game lead over California, Pa., and Indiana, Pa., with
six conference games left to play.
The Rock seeks its
first division title since 2000 and its 13th in Jeff
Messer’s 18 seasons as SRU’s head coach.
Northern
exposure --The Rock has won 22 of its last 25 games and 23
of 27 games since returning from its spring-break trip to
Bradenton, Florida.
Another
Messer milestone – Messer reached the 550-win
milestone when The Rock beat California, Pa., in the first game of
a PSAC-West doubleheader last Friday at Jack Critchfield Park.
Fast start
--The Rock is off to its best start since 1993 when SRU won
34 of its first 41 games en route to a 37-12 final record.
The Rock’s
1989 squad holds set the program’s single-season win record
with a 42-17 mark.
This year’s
start compares favorably to those of the three Rock teams that
advanced to the Division II World Series. After 41 games, the 1989
and 2000 teams were 31-10, while the 1997 team was 25-16.
30 times 10
-- The Rock has won 30 or more games for the
10th time in school history and the sixth time in the
last seven seasons. All the 30-win seasons have been recorded since
Messer assumed the head coaching reins in 1986.
Hitting
streaks – Rock junior shortstop Nathan Statzer
(Harmony/Seneca Valley HS) has hit safely in each of the
last nine games … Senior center fielder Joe Neidrick
(Osceola Mills/Philipsburg-Osceola HS) had a 10-game
hitting streak snapped when he was hitless in the first game of
Monday’s doubleheader vs. West Liberty State.
# ROCK PRIDE #
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