Box Scores
W 1-0 / L 11-5

BLOOMSBURG – Redshirt senior Jeremy Gigliotti struck out nine Huskies, including the final five batters he faced, to wrap up a two-hit, 1-0 shutout for head coach John Kochmansky's 100th career victory as East Stroudsburg University split a PSAC East baseball doubleheader at Bloomsburg on Friday.

The left-hander retired 18 of the final 19 batters who stepped to the plate against him, allowing just a leadoff walk in the sixth, and struck out the side on 10 pitches in the seventh inning to seal his second shutout of the season and the third of his career.

ESU (21-8, 7-5) dropped the second game, 11-5, as Bloomsburg (13-15, 4-10) had 14 hits and scored seven runs (two earned) in 3.0 innings off redshirt sophomore Andy Noga. The second half of this weekend's series is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. at Mitterling Field, but a postponement due to rain may be announced Friday night or Saturday morning.

Gigliotti (5-1) lowered his ERA to 0.45 and has 52 strikeouts, seven walks and just 17 hits allowed in 40.0 innings after pitching out of a pair of difficult situations in the first two innings. He gave up a pair of leadoff singles and the Huskies had a runner on third with one out in both frames, but Gigliotti got out of the first inning with a comebacker (tag play at home plate) and fly ball, then struck out the final two batters of the second to get out of trouble.

The Warriors' ace needed just one run of support, and the offense got it with three straight singles to start the fourth inning. Junior 2B Ryan Guarino, redshirt junior 3B Jake Griesemer and sophomore 1B Brian Ernst strung together base knocks to plate the game's only run for three of ESU's eight hits off Bloomsburg starter Vinny Voorhees.

Gigliotti was named to the watch list for the Tino Martinez Award, Division II baseball's player of the year, earlier this week and continued his run of nearly unhittable performances. He has taken a shutout into the seventh inning of all four of his PSAC East starts, improved to 3-1 against conference foes and should rank either first or second in Division II in ERA and hits allowed per 9 innings in next week's NCAA rankings.

He also improved his career record to 17 wins against nine losses and ran his career strikeout total to 210, five away from the school record of 215 set by former major leaguer Joel Bennett from 1989-91.

In the second game, ESU took a 2-1 lead in the top of the second inning on doubles by Ernst and freshman OF Chris Knott and an RBI single by freshman OF Matt Bahnick, but Bloomsburg came back with four runs (all unearned) in the second and two more (one unearned) in the third to go ahead 7-2. Jerry Lloyd broke the game open with a two-run homer in the fourth as the cleanup hitter in a lineup that saw the top four batters go 9-for-14 with six runs and nine RBI.

Freshmen Colin Taylor, Keith Moyer and Joel Rosencrance all threw an inning each in relief of Noga, who entered the week as the Division II leader in fewest walks per 9 innings (0.64). Noga didn't walk a batter in his 3.0 innings and saw his ERA move just slightly, from 1.70 to 1.99, but took his second loss of the season to fall to 5-2.

Casey Cooperman picked up the win for Bloomsburg, throwing a complete game and allowing five runs (two earned) on eight hits with seven strikeouts and one walk. ESU scored three unearned runs in the seventh as the Huskies committed three errors in the game, but the Warriors' two errors and a catcher's interference in the first three innings proved to be more costly.

Ernst led the Warriors' offense in the doubleheader, going 5-for-7 with two RBI after going 7-for-13 against West Chester in last week's 3-1 series win. The sophomore is hitting .388 with nine doubles, a home run, 31 RBI and a .467 on-base percentage this season after earning All-PSAC East recognition as a pitcher and first baseman as a freshman.

Saturday's twinbill is slated to begin at 1 p.m. Please check esuwarriors.com for updated information on the status of the second half of this weekend's series.


Warriors Notes
* Kochmansky, last year's PSAC East Coach of the Year, reached 100 wins in 176 career games and ranks third in school history in career victories. The other two coaches to hit the 100-win plateau achieved the feat in 214 and 224 games.
* ESU's 100 wins over the last four seasons are already the most in school history with at least 12 games left in the 2011 season.
* The Warriors remain one game over .500 – 996-995-25 – as they close in on the 1,000th win in program history.
* Among Gigliotti's numbers this season – 0.45 ERA, 52 strikeouts, 17 hits allowed in 40.0 innings – the most impressive may be his performance with runners on base. Opponents are hitting 5-for-41 with 20 strikeouts with runners on base; 2-for-27 with 15 strikeouts with runners in scoring position; and 2-for-15 with nine strikeouts with runners in scoring position and two outs.