Box Scores
W 9-4 / L 11-3

MANSFIELD – East Stroudsburg University won the first game 9-4 to split a doubleheader at Mansfield and move within one game of securing a spot in the PSAC baseball playoffs on the final day of the regular season when the Warriors host the second half of the series on Saturday at Mitterling Field.

Freshman Brian Ernst won his third straight PSAC East start and threw his second straight complete game to improve to 5-2 in the opener for the Warriors (25-17, 10-12).

The victory extended ESU's school-record winning streak to 11 games and ended Mansfield's own 11-game streak. The Mounties (31-15, 12-10) won the second game, 11-3.

ESU can clinch its second PSAC playoff spot in four seasons and the fourth in school history with a win on Saturday or a Kutztown split against Millersville. The Golden Bears won the first two games of the series, 8-4 and 22-1, on Friday which gave Mansfield its playoff spot. West Chester and Kutztown enter Saturday tied for the top spot in the PSAC East with 16-6 division records.

Ernst beat Shippensburg (5-4) and Millersville (4-1) the last two weekends and stayed hot on the mound as the Warriors won for the 14th time in 15 games in the first game. The right-hander struck out seven, walked three and gave up four runs (three earned) on five hits. He has seven strikeouts in each of his last four starts and has 47 K's in 46.0 innings this season.

Sophomore SS Evan Gallagher was 4-for-4 at the plate to lead an ESU offense that scored multiple runs in four of the first five innings. The Warriors pounded 13 hits, including two each by sophomore 2B Ryan Guarino, junior 3B Jason Kelmer and freshman RF Evan Cain.

Kelmer hit his seventh home run of the season to give ESU a 2-0 lead in the first inning and Cain's leadoff single in the second sparked another two-run inning.

Mansfield pulled within 4-3 in the bottom of the third as the Mounties had a walk, single and double to start the inning but managed just two hits off Ernst the rest of the way.

The Warriors answered the three-run third with three runs of their own in the top of the fourth. Cain and redshirt freshman LF Zak Tupper opened the inning with back-to-back singles and scored on a two-run double by Gallagher, and Guarino's two-out single brought Gallagher home from second.

ESU scored two more runs in the top of the fifth to go ahead 9-3. Ernst and senior 1B Kenny Serfass led off the inning with doubles, and Serfass scored on a wild pitch after a sacrifice bunt by Cain.

Mansfield plated an unearned run to complete its scoring in the sixth. Ernst finished the game strong, with a pair of strikeouts and a ground ball back to the mound to wrap up his second consecutive complete game.

In the second game, Mansfield led 2-0 through two innings, 5-0 through three and 11-1 after the fourth to support Justin Garcia (5.0 IP, three runs) on the mound.

Seth Tressler was 2-for-2 with a pair of doubles and drove in three runs and three other players – Matt Hamilton, Kevin Miller and Dan Chevalier – also had two hits.

Kelmer was 2-for-4 in game two and 4-for-7 in the doubleheader, while freshman C Nico Delerme was 2-for-3 and is hitting .387 on the season (29-for-75). Delerme's batting average hasn't dipped below .350 since March 8.

Cain had a 10-game hitting streak, the longest for the Warriors this season, snapped in the second game. He was 14-for-35 (.400) and scored 11 runs during the stretch.

Gallagher enters the final day of the regular season hitting .408 in a year that includes multiple hit games in 24 of his 42 starts. Gallagher hit .543 (25-46) with nine multi-hit games during the Warriors' 11-game winning streak.

ESU will honor seniors Brendan O'Connor, Christian Saveri and Kenny Serfass before Saturday's doubleheader, which begins at 1 p.m.