April 17, 2007

Box Score

ASHLAND, Ohio - Mercyhurst fell in both games of a GLIAC doubleheader at Ashland, losing 9-8 and 7-4 to the Eagles.

b>Game One
Mercyhurst pounded out 16 hits, but Casey Jirsa drove in all nine runs with three home runs as Mercyhurst fell 9-8 at Dunges Field.

Jirsa hit a two-run shot in the first, a three-run homer in the third, and a grand slam in the fourth to account for all of Ashland's runs. It negated a team-effort for the Lakers, as six players had multi-hit games.

The two teams battled back and forth through the first four innings. RBI doubles by David Lough and Jeff Stoll gave the Lakers a 2-0 lead, but Jirsa's first long ball of the day tied the score in the bottom half. The Lakers added run scoring hits by Trey Bennett in the second and Sean Weyant in the third to claim a 4-2 lead before a three-run bomb by Jirsa made it 5-4 Eagles.

Mercyhurst, however, answered right back with two more in the top of the fourth for a 6-5 lead after Joe Luli's two-run double scored Jamie Walczak and Lough.

Jirsa's grand slam made it 9-6 in the bottom of the inning, but the Lakers tried to claw back with an RBI hit by Walczak in the fifth and Lough's seventh homer of the season in the sixth. Mercyhurst loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the seventh, but Ben Minard forced a ground out to end the game.

Jirsa finished the game 3-for-4 with three homers and nine RBIs. Ashland mustered just seven hits in the game.

Mercyhurst's one-thru-six hitters all had multi-hit games. Walczak and Bennett each went 3-for-5, scoring once and driving in one. Lough and Stoll were both 2-for-3. Lough scored twice, homered and drove in a pair. Luli and Weyant both had 2-for-4 efforts at the plate.

Eric Drobotij took the loss to fall to 2-2. Josh Davidson won despite allowing all eight runs in five innings on 13 hits. Minard picked up his first save.

Game Two
Ashland jumped out to a 4-0 lead through three innings and held on to sweep the doubleheader with a 7-4 win in game two.

The Lakers trailed 4-0 before Joe Luli's two-run single to score David Lough and Jamie Walczak cut the Eagle lead in half in the top of the fourth. After the Eagles added one in the fifth, Josh Schmidt stroked a two-run single in the top of the sixth to make it a one-run game at 5-4.

Ashland added a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning to seal the game.

Walczak and Luli each had two-hit games for the Lakers.

Brian Espersen took the loss to fall to 3-2 on the year. Todd Schlenkerman went the first 5.1 for the Eagles to improve to 5-1. Ben Minard tossed the final 1.2 for his second save of the day.

With the losses, Mercyhurst falls to 20-13 overall and 6-6 in the GLIAC. Ashland improves to 24-11 and 10-1. The Lakers host No. 4 Grand Valley State on Saturday and Sunday.