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JOHNSTOWN - Junior right-hander Ryan Lubreski limited a talented Millersville lineup to one earned run in 8.0 innings and set East Stroudsburg University's single-season wins record, as the Warriors advanced through the winners bracket at the PSAC Tournament with a 6-2 win over the Marauders on Thursday night at Point Stadium.

ESU will face the winner of Friday morning's (8:30 a.m.) elimination game between Kutztown and California at 2:30 p.m. The Warriors (31-16), the PSAC East's No. 3 seed, and West Chester (PSAC East #4) are the only two undefeated teams remaining in the tournament.

UPDATE: ESU will play California at 4 p.m. Cal advanced with a 12-7 win over Kutztown.

ESU outlasted Gannon, 8-5, in a six hour, 40 minute game on Wednesday night which included a lightning delay of four hours, 13 minutes. The Warriors got off the field on Wednesday at 10:10 p.m., and finished the day's fifth and final game at 10:45 p.m. on Thursday.  (Gannon recap)

Millersville (37-15), the PSAC East regular season champion which blanked Slippery Rock 5-0 on a four-hitter from Tim Mayza in the 8 a.m. game on Thursday, came back to face ESU in the second of two winners bracket games.

Thursday night's game was a rematch of last weekend's PSAC East series (split 2-2) and a reprisal of the starting pitching match-up in game 2, won by ESU, 4-3, on Friday at Millersville. Lubreski went 6.0 innings, with Millersville building a 3-0 lead before ESU scored four runs, all with two outs, in the fifth inning of the Marauders' right-hander Tad Barton.

On Thursday, the Marauders once again jumped out to an early lead on Lubreski, scoring one run on back-to-back hits to open the game and adding an unearned run on a walk, error and sacrifice fly in the second for a 2-1 lead.

Lubreski (8-0) settled in and was rock solid the rest of the way. He stranded two runners on base in both the third and fourth innings, then retired 13 of the next 14 batters (including the final out of the fourth) until being lifted after a leadoff single in the ninth.

An All-PSAC East 1st team selection after transferring  from UMass, Lubreski pitched at least 6.0 innings in his ninth straight start, which includes five complete games. He has pitched in 11 games, making 10 starts, and thrown 70.0 innings in his first season at ESU.

While Lubreski dealt on the mound, the offense chipped away at the early one-run deficits. In the first inning, the Warriors responded immediately, as senior 2B Joe Bennie hit a leadoff single, advanced to second on a throwing error by the left fielder and scored on an RBI single by senior 1B Brian Ernst, who had four hits and was the starting pitcher (5.2 IP) in Wednesday's 8-5 win over Gannon.

Barton retired 11 straight batters after the first-inning run, but ran into trouble in the middle innings.

Junior OF Chris Knott, one of the heroes in the Gannon win after going 3-for-5 with two doubles and a game-breaking three-run, two-out homer in the seventh after the lightning delay, led off the fifth inning with a triple to deep center. Knott scored on a groundout by redshirt freshman 3B Drew Hercik, who made a fine defensive play to end the top of the fifth, and make it 2-2.

The Warriors took the lead in the sixth, scoring two runs on one hit, a hit batter, three walks and a wild pitch while knocking Barton from the game.

Ernst started it with a one-out single and senior OF Eric Boyer reached on a fielders choice. Then Barton lost his control, hitting junior DH Mike Tenaglia and walking Knott to load the bases.

Boyer scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch and Barton walked Forth on a 3-2 count, loading the bases again and bringing in reliever Sean Stephenson. Hercik worked the count full again, drawing a walk to bring in Tenaglia for a 4-2 lead.

Lubreski got three straight fly balls in the seventh, and ESU padded the lead after putting its first three batters on base in the bottom of the inning. Junior SS Eric Linares walked, Bennie singled and Ernst walked to load the bases and Tenaglia belted a one-out, two-RBI single to left field to plate Linares and Bennie for a 6-2 advantage before Pat Kelley came on to get the final two outs.

Lubreski had one strikeout through 7.0 innings but struck out the side in the eighth, getting the Marauders' fourth, fifth and sixth hitters to go down in order. He took the mound in the ninth but gave up a leadoff single to Tyler McDonald, bringing on junior Keenan Stare to finish the evening.

Stare, who had a 2.0 inning save in Wednesday's win over Gannon, earned his first save of the year in last Friday's 4-3 win at Millersville. Thursday's game wasn't a save situation, but Stare got a strikeout, groundout and flyout to end it.

ESU outhit Millersville, 7-6, with Bennie and Ernst both collecting two hits at the top of the lineup. Tenaglia, Knott and freshman OF John Armbrust also had hits and the Warriors drew five walks and one hit by pitch, including three walks and the hit batter in the decisive sixth inning.


GAME NOTES

* ESU (31-16) is one win from the school record of 32 victories, set in 2009.

* The PSAC East won all four first-round games after Millersville shut out Slippery Rock, 5-0, on Thursday morning to complete the opening round.

* In elimination games, California topped Mercyhurst, 8-6, and Gannon knocked out Slippery Rock, 9-3.

* West Chester is 2-0 with a pair of shutouts, as Fred Breidenbach blanked Kutztown, 3-0, in the winners bracket after Joe Gunkel did the same to California (5-0) in the first round.

* Millersville faces Gannon in an elimination game on Friday at 11:30 a.m. The winner takes on West Chester at 5:30 p.m.

* Lubreski broke a six-way tie on ESU's single-season wins list with his eighth victory. At 8-0, he is one of only two ESU pitchers with at least five wins without a loss. Jason Tribbet was 5-0 in 1998.

* Knott is 4-for-8 in the tournament with all four of his hits going for extra bases. He has 24 extra-base hits this season (13 doubles, 5 triples, 6 home runs) and leads ESU in batting (.367), on-base percentage (.458), slugging percentage (.640) and RBI (41).

* Ernst is hitting 6-for-8, going 4-for-5 with a double (44th career, tying ESU's school record) against Gannon and 2-for-3 against Millersville.

* ESU is 7th in this week's NCAA Division II Atlantic Region rankings and in contention for one of three at-large bids to the tournament. Automatic bids will go to the champions of the CIAA (Winston-Salem), WVIAC (Concord) and PSAC (TBA). The cut line is currently the 5th-place team in the regional rankings.

* The Warriors are seeking their fifth PSAC championship in school history and first since 1971. They won titles under the Saylor rating system in 1957, 1963 and 1969 and the tournament championship in 1971.