STROUDSBURG – Behind eight strong innings and 12 strikeouts from redshirt senior Chase Nowak, the East Stroudsburg University baseball team took the PSAC East series-opener from Kutztown, 6-1, on Friday afternoon at Creekview Park.
The Warriors improved to 27-13 on the season and 8-8 in the conference while the Golden Bears fell to 9-28 overall and 4-15 in the PSAC East.
Nowak moved to 5-0 on the year and lowered his ERA to 1.83 after firing 8+ innings, allowing one run on seven hits while recording double-digit punchouts for the second time.
Redshirt Tommy Dunleavy provided the offense out of the seven spot in the lineup as he went 3-for-4 with his sixth home run of the season on a solo blast in the sixth. Freshman Jack Rothenhausler was 2-for-4 which his included his fifth longball of the season as well two RBI and a run scored.
After missing the previous four games, CJ Peechatka returned to go 2-for-4 with two RBI. Ben Piripavel reached base in all four at-bats, going 1-for-1 with two walks and a hit by pitch.
Notables
- Scoring a run today, Brainy Rojas remained at fifth all-time by collecting his 149th and is still second in program history for stolen bases with 75
- Piripavel stretched his team-high on-base streak to 17 games after reaching four times
- Nowak collected his 199th career strikeout which moved him into sixth all-time in school history
- The Warriors stole a pair of bases to increase their season total to 112, which ranks second in the PSAC and sixth in all of NCAA Division II
- Head Coach John Kochmansky continues to move towards his 400th of his career win after collecting No. 396 this afternoon
How it Happened
Following a one-out single from Torreullas in the bottom of the second inning, Rothenhausler crushed the first pitch he saw over the left field fence to put the Warriors ahead 2-0.
The Warriors loaded the base on back-to-back bunts and a hit by pitch to open the bottom of the fifth inning before Kauffman grounded into a fielder's choice to bring home ESU's third run. With one out and runners in scoring position, Peechatka cleared the bases on a single to center field to make the score 5-0 in favor of the Warriors.
Dunleavy stretched ESU's advantage to 6-0 in the bottom of the sixth as he led off the inning with his fifth home run of the season that just cleared the left center field fence.
Kutztown wouldn't go away quietly in their final at-bats as they scored one run on three hits in the top of the ninth inning to ultimately make the final score 6-1.
Up Next
The Warriors are back on the road tomorrow with a trip to Kutztown for a doubleheader with the Golden Bears beginning at 12 p.m. from North Campus Field.
