RIO GRANDE, Ohio -- Point Park University baseball notched two wins on Sunday to take the River States Conference series at University of Rio Grande (Ohio), two games to one. The Pioneers (10-7, 3-3 RSC) did so by winning the suspended game from Saturday night, 5-2, with three runs in the top of the ninth and then scoring the final four runs of an 8-4 victory to clinch the series.
Sunday started with Point Park due up in the top of the ninth and the score tied at 2-2 from Saturday night's game that was suspended due to darkness. The Pioneers strung together five hits and scored three times to go out in front. Ruben Ramirez closed out the victory by earning the save, although Rio Grande did have the tying run come to the plate with two outs.
That made a winner out of Nicholas Beardsley (2-1), who did all of his 8.0 innings of work in Saturday's nightcap. After Rio Grande had won the opening game of the series, 11-8, earlier in the day, Beardsley proceeded to give up just one earned run in his outing while striking out 11 and walking none.
Rio Grande did force extra innings of the game that was scheduled for seven with a late run that was unearned. But Beardsley deservedly got the win as the pitcher of record when the Pioneers rallied in the ninth.
The Point Park ninth featured RBI singles by Antonio Carrillo, Luis Hernandez and Jouseph Renovales. Ty Andrews and Danilo Leon also had hits in the inning to help set the table.
Game 3 of the series followed right after, and as such with the series, the teams took turns putting up their runs. Point Park got out to a 4-0 lead through four innings only to have Rio Grande knot things up with two in the fifth and two more in the sixth.
But the Pioneers took the lead for good on Ed Pfluger's two-run bomb to deep left field, which came in the seventh inning.
Point Park padded the lead to 8-4 thanks to Hernandez and Renovales in the eighth. Hernandez singled, stole second and scored on Renovales' base hit. Then Renovales stole second and scored on Emille Morillo's single.
Renovales was 2 for 3 with three RBIs, two sacrifice flies and a stolen base. Hernandez was 2 for 4 with two runs and two stolen bases. The Pioneers had four steals as a team, and they also added a total of five sacrifices, three of which were bunts.
Marco Quintanar (1-1) had things under control on the mound throwing the first 7.0 innings and giving up just two earned runs. He scattered seven hits while striking out six and walking three.
Rio Grande scratched across a couple of runs in the fifth although the RedStorm did not hit the ball out of the infield in the inning. A fielder's choice and an error brought the runs home.
In the sixth, Rio Grande had a couple of hits, but there was also a big error that tied up the game, 4-4. But with runners at first and third, Quintanar got the final out via pickoff, and the score remained tied.
Pfluger's home run came the next half inning, Quintanar retired the seventh in order and Jonathan Pacheco did not give up a hit while pitching the final two innings scoreless. Pacheco struck out one in a non-save situation.
Point Parks' next games are Friday-Saturday, March 19-20 for an RSC series at WVU Tech. Point Park's home openers are the next weekend March 26-27 versus Brescia (Ky.) for a conference slate.
