May 15, 2009

Mercyhurst remains undefeated, set to meet West Chester Saturday

WEST LAWN, Pa. — Pitchers John Mang, Matthew Jimenez and Jamie Walczak combined to hold West Virginia State to seven hits in Mercyhurst’s 4-1 win in Game 6 of the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regionals Friday at Owls Field.

Mang allowed one run on four hits in seven innings to collect his 10th win, a single-season record at Mercyhurst.

Jimenez pitched 2 2/3 of scoreless relief and Walczak got out a bases-loaded jam to pick up his fifth save.

The run support came early for Mang as Mercyhurst picked up single tallies in the first, second and fifth innings to take a 3-0 lead.

Jon Dziamba finished 2-for-3 with a run scored in the first and an RBI single in the second inning. He doubled and scored on Jeff Stoll’s double in the first inning.

Adam Gray, who finished 3-for-4, singled in the second and scored on Dziamba’s single.

Stoll drove in another run in the fifth, singling in Jonathan Keppler, who walked to lead off the inning.

West Virginia State plated its only run in the sixth when Bo Darby walked and scored on a groundout by Mike Deleeuw.

Trey Bennett scored an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth, scoring on Gray’s third single of the game.

Mercyhurst (37-16) advances to play No. 1 West Chester in Game 7 at noon Saturday, while West Virginia State (32-14) will play No. 2 Kutztown in Game 8, an elimination game, at 3:30 p.m.

The loser of Game 7 and winner of Game 8 will play in an elimination game at 7 p.m. Saturday.

 Web site notice (5/16): due to a network outage, Kutztown University's Web site may be unavailable at times on Saturday (May 16).  This means that livestats won't be available during these outages.  KU has developed a blog at http://kubears.blogspot.com/ where in-game updates and links to other coverage will be available.  Please bookmark the blog link above, as you may not be able to access this page Saturday afternoon.