PITTSBURGH -- Emmanuel Lopez hit a solo homer in the bottom of the seventh to lift Point Park University to a 6-5 win over No. 25 IU Southeast in the second game of a River States Conference baseball doubleheader on Friday. The victory in the second game forged a split after IU Southeast won the first game, 6-3.
Point Park (29-16, 21-5 RSC) remains 1.0 game ahead of IU Southeast (35-10, 20-6 RSC) for first place in the standings, the same lead the Pioneers had at the beginning of the day. The teams play the third and fourth games of the series beginning on Saturday, a series that is the RSC Baseball Games of the Week.
Lopez's eighth homer of the year capped off a game that had the lead change hands a few times. IU Southeast had leads of 1-0, 2-1 and later 4-1. The Pioneers drew even, though, when Logan Linder lifted a three-run homer to left field to tie the score at 4-4 in the fourth inning.
Point Park had a 5-4 lead after Edberg Dominguez lined an RBI single with two outs in the fifth for a 5-4 lead. That scored Richard Perez, who singled and moved to second on Chris Hernandez's bunt.
That lead was short-lived, however, as IU Southeast' Tanner Leenknecht smashed a solo homer to tie in the top of the next inning. That came against Addison Domingo, who threw the last two innings in relief of Point Park starter Nicholas Beardsley.
After the homer to Leenknecht, Domingo retired the next six in a row and picked up three strikeouts to keep things at 5-5. He earned the victory when Lopez smashed his game-winner in the last at bat, a high fly ball that went out in left.
Beardsley threw 5.0 innings while giving up four hits and striking out six. IU Southeast starter Jack Drew went 4.1 innings in his first start of the year. He was the first of four pitchers to work for the Grenadiers.
Leenknecht had two of IU Southeast's five hits. He had an RBI double in fourth, which was followed right up by Julian Flannary's RBI double, to push the lead to 4-1.
The opening game had IU Southeast's Ryne Underwood throw a complete game for the victory. He was backed by an offense that got six runs on six hits and took advantage of three Point Park errors that led to three unearned runs in the 6-3 result.
The Grenadiers went out in front, 3-1, in the fourth when Leenknecht delivered a two-run double, and another run scored on an error with two outs. Two innings later, an error, a walk, a hit batter and a bases-loaded walk factored into a two-run inning. Flannary had a base hit to drive in one of the runs.
Nicholas Lugo homered in the IU Southeast top of the seventh to increase the lead to 6-1. The Pioneers got closer on Stefan Mrkonja's two-run homer in the bottom half, but Underwood finished off the victory. He scattered eight hits, picked up seven strikeouts and walked just one.
Krivijanski gave up just two earned runs in his 5.1 innings. There were five runs charged to him overall and three hits.
For Sunday's games beginning at 12 p.m. (DH) tune in to the Point Park Sports Network on Stretch Internet for live video. Follow live stats on Dakstats. Follow the Pioneers on Social Media @PointParkSports.
