Box Score PITTSBURGH -- Point Park University baseball finished off its conference regular season on Sunday with a 22-0 victory over Alice Lloyd (Ky.) at home. The Pioneers pounded six home runs among their 22 hits and had three pitchers nearly combine on a perfect game.
Point Park (32-12, 19-5 RSC) punctuated its River States Conference East Division championship by getting out to a 16-0 lead after three innings. The entire roster got involved in the hitting with the backups taking over for the starters partway through.
On the mound, a base hit by Alice Lloyd's Dawson Beckett in the second inning was the only thing that prevented a combined perfect game for the Pioneers. That was the only base runner allowed between starter Javier Cardoso II (4.0 IP), Jose Moreno (1.0 IP) or Joathan Rivera (2.0 IP). They combined for 10 strikeouts in the game, which ended after 7.0 innings on the run rule.
The six home runs hit on the day tied for the team record for home runs in a single season. The Pioneers have now hit 82 homers this year to match last year's output.
Point Park continued its momentum of 8-0 and 10-0 wins on Saturday with five runs in the first inning on Sunday. Omar Morillo stroked a triple to lead things off, and the Pioneers got their start. After a sacrifice fly from Jared Campbell, Isaac Santana sent the first of six homers over the fence, a solo shot three batters in.
Four more hits came in the first inning with Chris Williams and Eddie Javier Jr ripping singles, which were followed by RBI base hits from Luis Gonzalez and Carlos Martinez.
Williams, who was 4 for 5, smashed the first of his two homers in the second inning, a two-run shot to make the score 7-0. Campbell had led off with a double.
Nine runs in the third inning broke open the game even more. The big blast was a grand slam by Michali Brito. He was the seventh batter of the inning with just one out. Williams went deep right after that to make it back to back bombs. Williams was not done there as he stroked an RBI single in the fourth.
Morillo hit a solo homer in the fifth for an 18-0 lead. Morillo was 3 for 5 with two runs and two RBIs. He doubled and tripled from the left side of the plate and turned around to homer from the right side. He drew a walk in the sixth to stay a single away from the cycle.
Jean Santos provided the final homer of the day, a three-run shot in the sixth. That was a big homer as it tied the school record for team home runs in a single season. Cole Wajda singled for one of his two hits earlier in the inning, and Carlos Burroughs smashed an RBI double right after that.
The Pioneers had 14 different players get a hit. Collecting two hits apiece were Luis Gonzalez, Crixtian Taveras and Cole Wajda. Martinez drove in three runs. Scoring three runs apiece were Santana and Gonzalez.
The pitching staff mowed down the Eagles with Cardoso II retiring 12 of the 13 batters he faced. He struck out five and walked none. There were six groundouts and only one ball hit out of the infield against him.
Jose Moreno took over for the fifth and retired Alice Lloyd in order. That inclued a strikeout to begin. Joathan Rivera pitched 1-2-3 sixth and seventh innings with two punch outs in each frame.
Next up for Point Park is a non-conference series at home versus Bryant & Stratton-Albany (N.Y.) on Tuesday at 12 p.m. (DH) and Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Point Park Field. The Pioneers will then go to IU Southeast this next coming weekend for the RSC Baseball Championship opening series. That series of three games is a matchup of divisional winners and will determine the overall No. 1 seed in next week's conference championship in Chillicothe, Ohio.