Box Scores
L 4-3 / W 7-2

Series Stats

KUTZTOWN – East Stroudsburg University put together a five-run fourth inning and sophomore Colin Kelly was tough on the mound in a 7-2 win in the nightcap as the Warriors split Saturday's doubleheader to win the season series with PSAC East preseason favorite Kutztown.

ESU (16-4, 3-1) took three of four games from the Golden Bears to win the season series for the first time since a four-game sweep in 2000. The Warriors were 3-42 overall and 2-36 in conference series against Kutztown since 2001 entering the weekend. Kutztown and ESU are ranked No. 2 and No. 3 in this week's NCBWA Atlantic Region poll and Kutztown is ranked No. 22 in Division II in the organization's national poll.

Redshirt senior Jeremy Gigliotti and redshirt sophomore Andy Noga set the tone for the series on Friday, throwing shutouts in 1-0 and 6-0 victories. The Warriors' 16-4 record is two games better than the previous best 20-game start in school history. (Friday recap)

Kutztown (11-7, 1-3) won the opener, 4-3, behind a complete game from Trent Mertz and the bat of cleanup hitter James Quigley, who hit a two-run homer in the first inning and the go-ahead RBI double in the fourth.

The Warriors came back with a strong outing from Kelly, who gave up one earned run in 5.0 innings before handing the ball to junior Ryan Beck for the final 2.0 innings of work to wrap up the series win. Kelly improved to 3-0 in four starts this season and was 4-2 in 10 games (four starts) with a team-best 3.16 ERA against the PSAC East as a freshman.

Sophomore OF Eric Boyer broke the game open with a two-out, two-run single to cap the five-run fourth inning that put the Warriors ahead 6-1, and freshman OF Chris Knott was 3-for-4 with his second career home run for the first run of the game in the second inning.

Knott was 4-for-6 on the day after going 10-for-48 at the plate to start his collegiate career. He led off the second with a blast to left before Kutztown scratched out a run in the third inning to tie the game at 1-1.

Sophomore DH Tom Spilatore walked and Knott and freshman 2B Matt Bahnick singled to start the big inning in the fourth. Senior C Bryce Muth followed with a bases loaded walk to push the go-ahead run across, junior SS Evan Gallagher hit an RBI single with one out and redshirt junior 3B Jake Griesemer lifted a sacrifice fly to right that scored Bahnick and put the Warriors ahead 4-1.

Boyer's base hit, the fourth of the inning, drove in Muth and Gallagher and gave ESU a 6-1 lead as Kelly took the mound for the bottom of the fourth. The sophomore right-hander stranded a runner at second in the fourth and gave up an unearned run in the fifth, but the Warriors got the run back in the top of the sixth by taking advantage of two errors after Muth started the inning with a single.

Beck got three groundouts to second in a perfect sixth inning and sealed the victory with two strikeouts in the seventh. Kutztown had a pair of one-out singles, but Beck fanned Shayne Houck, last year's PSAC East Player of the Year, and Quigley to shut down the Golden Bears.

The Warriors' pitching staff, led by Gigliotti's three-hitter and Noga's five-hitter on Friday, held Kutztown to a .198 average and six runs over four games after the Golden Bears entered with a .358 average and more than 10 runs per game in their first 14. Houck was 1-for-10 with three strikeouts after going 23-for-55 (.418) with four strikeouts to open the year.

ESU pitchers struck out 29, walked just seven and allowed only 20 hits in 27.0 innings while the defense made one error on 110 chances for a .991 fielding percentage. Gigliotti struck out eight and walked three for his second career shutout and Noga struck out eight and didn't issue a walk for the first shutout of his career in the first half of the series.

In the opener on Saturday, Quigley's two-out, two-run homer in the first inning gave Kutztown its first runs of the series. The Golden Bears added a two-out run in the second inning and Houck and Quigley doubled to lead off the third for a 4-3 lead.

ESU scored three runs (one earned) in the top of the third off Mertz, who gave up seven hits, walked three and struck out 11 in his first complete game of the season. Mertz allowed just three hits and didn't let the Warriors get a runner in scoring position over the final four innings.

Freshman Keith Moyer kept ESU within striking distance with 3.0 innings of scoreless relief, striking out five and allowing just one hit after the Golden Bears took the lead in the third. Freshman Keenan Stare made his first career PSAC East start and allowed four runs on four hits, struck out three and walked three in 3.0 innings.

ESU, Shippensburg (vs. Bloomsburg) and Millersville (vs. West Chester) all went 3-1 in their first PSAC East series of the year this weekend. Mansfield did not play this weekend and opens conference play next Friday and Saturday against Millersville.

The Warriors do not have a conference series scheduled next week and will play six non-conference games before returning to PSAC East action against Mansfield on April 1-2. ESU hosts Lincoln on Tuesday, Philadelphia University on Thursday and Washington Adventist on Sunday in single nine-inning games next week and travels to Washington Adventist for a doubleheader on Friday.