Power bats launch Rockets to 19-4 win over Big Reds

Dan Hiner, The Herald, Sharon, Pa.
·3 min read

May 18—WEST MIDDLESEX — The Slippery Rock baseball team trailed to start the top of the second inning. But a couple swings by the Rockets put the ball into orbit.

Slippery Rock's offense continued its hot streak as the Rockets beat West Middlesex 19-4 on Tuesday afternoon.

Walker Vogan, Sal Mineo and Brett Galcik all had solo home runs for the Rockets.

Vogan was 2-for-3 with three RBIs while Ryan Montgomery, Lucas Allison, Nick Kingerski and Mineo each had two runs driven in on the day. Thompson, Dylan Gordon, Kyle Ritenour and Galcik each had an RBI.

"When [the power] comes, it seems to be coming in bunches," Slippery Rock head coach Derrick Wood said. "It's kind of unique in a way. We're seeing the fastball. Really, I think guys are getting in good counts. We're getting ahead 2-0, 1-0, so we're able to sit one speed."

Slippery Rock starting pitcher Ryan Double earned the win. He walked seven and allowed four runs over four innings, but he only allowed two hits and struck out four. Vogan walked one and struck out one to finish the game.

Richie Preston, Kyle Hurley Blaise Fox and Noah Grandy had RBIs for the Big Reds. Fox and Landon Zec both singled for West Middlesex's only hits.

Fox took the loss on the mound. He allowed six runs — five earned — on five hits and three walks. He struck out one in two innings.

The Big Reds (12-6) got on the board in the first inning. Double walked the first three batters of the inning. Preston and Hurley followed with sacrifice flies to center field to give West Middlesex a 2-0 lead.

The lead didn't last long. Mineo sent a fastball over the left-field fence to get the Rockets (14-5) on the board. In the next at-bat, Vogan sent another over the fence in left field to tie the game.

"One Sal hit the first home run, we knew we could hit him," Vogan said. "Usually, once we get a solid hit that's when we get energetic and it makes the game easy for us."

And the Slippery Rock dugout felt that energy. The Rockets tacked on four more runs in the inning to increase their lead to 6-2. With two outs in the top of the third, they added four more runs for a 10-2 lead and added another in the fourth.

Grandy snapped the Rockets scoring run with an RBI groundout for the Big Reds in the bottom of the fourth, but Slippery Rock responded with an eight-run fifth inning to bring about the mercy rule.

Fox pushed across Bowen Briggs in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI groundout to first base, closing the scoring for West Middlesex.

"Our goal wasn't to peak at the beginning of the year because when you peak, you always come down," Vogan said. "I think we're peaking now at the end of the season. Hopefully we can continue this throughout playoffs."

For West Middlesex, anything that could go wrong did after the first inning. The Big Reds struggled to put pressure on Double offensively and committed eight errors in the field.

"Not much to feel good about," West Middlesex head coach Kolten Hoffman said. "We got one more game left in the regular season then it's a new season for the playoffs. We got a lot of soul searching to do."

Despite the strong performance at the plate, Wood still found some aspects to work on before the season ends.

"Yes, while we're swinging it hot, our pitching and our base running was really rough today," Wood said. "You give up a two spot in the second round of the playoffs, maybe that's all you get. We gotta do a better job valuing 90 feet from the base running side, controlling the running game and letting our defense work on the pitching side."