Box Scores
L 4-3
L 13-7
KUTZTOWN – East Stroudsburg University will enter the final weekend of the regular season in third place in the PSAC East baseball standings after the Warriors split this weekend's series with No. 25-ranked Kutztown, falling 4-3 and 13-7 on the road on Saturday afternoon.
ESU (27-14, 11-9), which notched 5-1 and 7-1 wins over the Golden Bears on Friday, are two games ahead of Shippensburg (25-18, 9-11) and West Chester (18-22-1, 9-11) going into next weekend. The top four schools in the seven-team division will advance to the PSAC Tournament.
ESU faces division leader Millersville (34-12, 16-4) next weekend, hosting the Marauders on Saturday. West Chester has Kutztown (29-11, 14-6), which clinched at least the No. 2 seed on Saturday, and Shippensburg takes on Mansfield (21-24, 5-15).
The Warriors had early leads in both games on Saturday, but were unable to hold them after sweeping Friday's doubleheader at Mitterling Field.
ESU scored three runs in the second inning of the opener, but Kutztown climbed back with one in the third, two in the fourth and the go-ahead run on an RBI single by Matt Albaugh in the fifth.
In the second game, both teams scored two runs in the first, but Kutztown broke open a 5-3 game with eight runs (all unearned) in the sixth inning.
ESU is 8-4 against Kutztown in the last three years after winning the series, 3-1, in each of the last two seasons. KU held a 36-2 advantage in 10 seasons from 2001-10.
The Warriors got complete game victories from senior
Brian Ernst (three hits, 10 strikeouts) and junior
Ryan Lubreski (five hits, 0 earned runs) in Friday's wins over the Golden Bears. Ernst had his third straight game with 10+ strikeouts and Lubreski improved to 6-0 on the season. (
Complete recap)
Game 1
Junior catcher
Eric Forth was 3-for-3 and junior OF
Chris Knott was 2-for-3, including a double in the second inning, in his first career game in the cleanup spot.
Knott doubled, Forth singled and redshirt freshman 3B
Drew Hercik and freshman OF
John Armbrust followed with base hits in the three-run second, but that was all the scoring the Warriors would manage off four Kutztown pitchers.
Junior
Matt Smith took the decision for ESU, falling to 5-3 with Kutztown scoring four runs on nine hits in 4.0 innings. Four relievers pieced together 2.0 innings without allowing a hit.
Todd Rubendall had a two-run single to tie it for Kutztown in the fourth before Albaugh's go-ahead double in the fifth. The Warriors put the tying run on third with one out in the seventh, but Kutztown cut the runner down at home on a ground ball for the second out of the inning.
Game 2
ESU, ranked sixth in Division II in fielding percentage (.974), committed three straight errors in the bottom of the sixth as Kutztown entered the inning holding a 5-3 lead. The Golden Bears led 13-3 after the eight-run inning, and ESU scored four in the seventh to set the final margin.
Junior DH
Mike Tenaglia was 3-for-4 with four RBI, including a three-run homer in the seventh for his second of the season. Senior OF
Eric Boyer had two hits and senior 2B
Joe Bennie had two RBI.
Bennie walked and stole second and Boyer, Tenaglia and Knott strung together consecutive singles for a 2-0 lead through the first inning, but Kutztown got the runs back in the bottom half. The Golden Bears took the lead with three runs, all with two outs, in the third.
ESU made it 5-3 with an unearned run in the fifth as junior SS
Eric Linares reached on an error and scored on an RBI single by Bennie.
Game Notes
* ESU entered the weekend listed No. 7 in this week's NCAA Division II Atlantic Region rankings. Kutztown was No. 4 as the PSAC had all six teams ranked from No. 3 through No. 8. The top six teams, including automatic bids from the PSAC, WVIAC and CIAA, will compete in the NCAA Tournament.
* ESU has won or split the last four PSAC East series after opening with a 1-3 weekend against Shippensburg. The Warriors went 3-1 against Mansfield and West Chester, and split with Bloomsburg and Kutztown the last two weekends.
