PITTSBURGH -- Halfway there. Halfway to go.
Point Park University baseball is halfway there and has halfway to go in its task of capturing a River States Conference baseball regular season title in the final weekend of the regular season. The Pioneers beat Brescia (Ky.) University, 3-1 and 9-0, Friday at Point Park Field to register wins in the first two games of the four-game series.
The Pioneers (33-17, 24-6 RSC) have the other half of the weekend work ahead of them Saturday with two more games versus Brescia (13-33, 9-21 RSC) at 12 p.m. A four-game sweep of the Bearcats would give Point Park first place in the conference with all games complete. The Pioneers need two wins to stay ahead of No. 25 IU Southeast (42-11, 25-7 RSC) for the title.
Point Park took care of business on Friday with Nolan Krivijanski doing the job on the mound and Chris Hernandez providing the big hit in game one. Krivijanski (8-3) got the victory in 6.2 innings of work, and he was shutting out Brescia on four hits through the first six innings. The Bearcats did get four hits and run in the seventh, but Keenan Smith came in to get the final out, earn the save and leave the bases loaded in the 3-1 win.
The Pioneers' 3-0 lead was built on Hernandez's three-run double in the bottom of the fifth. Hernandez, the Pioneers' catcher, smacked the ball off the wall in right-center field. There were two outs and no one on before singles by Cole Johnson and Stefan Mrkonja and a walk to Richard Perez. Hernandez's clutch hit came next.
Tanner Tow pitched a good game for Brescia and was right around his ERA, which was 2.68 coming in. He tossed all six innings and gave up eight hits. Mkronja was 3 for 3 with a double for three of the hits.
In the second game, Point Park tallied 15 hits and turned up the offense as the game went on to win, 9-0. A four-run fifth broke the game open to 6-0 with Edberg Dominguez hammering a home run to left field, a two-run shot. Dominguez was 2 for 4. Manny Lopez went 3 for 4 with two RBIs to give him 55 in 50 games. Lopez and Yuri Sucart delivered RBI base hits in the big fifth inning.
Danny Sanchez went 2 for 2 with a walk and a sacrifice bunt, and he clubbed a two-run double to make the score 9-0 in the sixth. That inning also included Lopez's second run-scoring single of the game.
Cole Johnson collected another couple of hits, and he put the Pioneers up, 1-0, with an RBI base knock in the second. Mrkonja followed with an RBI hit of his own. There were three hits and two sacrifice bunts in the inning as the Pioneers built an early lead of 2-0.
Nicholas Beardsley (5-0) threw 6.0 shut-out innings to earn the victory. He tallied six strikeouts and one walk and gave up six hits. Gustavo Barbosa worked a 1-2-3 seventh to finish off the win.
Trailing 2-0, Brescia got three singles in a row in the fifth inning to load the bases with no outs. But a big play came next when right fielder Dominguez caught a fly ball off the bat of Josh Wetzel for the first out and then pegged Colton Hurt at home as he was trying to tag up for a run. Beardsley retired the next batter to keep the shutout alive.
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Watch Live when the Pioneers take on Brescia on Saturday. First pitch is 12 pm (DH). Log on to the Point Park Sports Network at pointparksports.com/live.
