Marshall University Athletics
Baseball Sweeps Doubleheader
3/19/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Baseball Sweeps Doubleheader
3/19/2005
- Game One
- Game Two
HUNTINGTON, W. Va. - Chris Koutsavlis (Pittsburgh, PA) and David Slovak (Louisville, KY) pitched complete games for the Thundering Herd to lead it to a doubleheader sweep of St. Bonaventure on Saturday in Marshall's home-opening series at University Heights.
Game one was won by the Herd (4-11) by a 4-1 score before downing the Bonnies (6-3) by an 11-3 score in game two. The 11 runs scored in the second game marked MU's top offensive outing of the season.
Koutsavlis started game one and pitched all nine innings, giving up only one unearned run. He gave up eight hits and walked only one batter while striking out five to take his first win of the season and even his record at 1-1. Slovak, a freshman, pitched the full seven innings, giving up the three runs, two of which were earned. He gave up six hits while striking out a career high of seven batters. He earned his first win at MU and moved his record to 1-3 on the season.
St. Bonaventure came out strong in game one, taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Brian Pellegrini scored on one of the most awkward plays in recent memory. With a batter on first, Pellegrini doubled to right and advanced to third on the throw. The batter on first, Dan Bratys, was thrown out at home, and catcher Nick Wolle (Coatesville, PA) threw the ball slowly back to the mound. Seeing this, Pellegrini took off for home, slipping just short of the plate. Koutsavlis reacted quickly, however, he threw the ball away, allowing Pellegrini to recover and give SBU the early lead.
That would be the only mistake of the game for MU, as they would hold the Bonnies to only six more hits in the game.
In the bottom of the third, Marshall got on the board when Joe Glevenyak (West Palm Beach, FL) singled to center to score Adam Ptacek (Assaria, KS), who was hit by a pitch.
The score remained tied until the bottom of the seventh inning when the Herd sent eight batters to the plate, scoring three. Adam Frederick (Franklin, PA) doubled to start the inning, and advanced to third on a bunt single by Aaron Jamieson (Lindsay, Ont.). Next up was Glevenyak, who knocked in his second run of the game, hitting a single. After Tommy Johnson (Gaithersburg, MD) was intentionally walked, Roddy Stieger (Westchester, OH) grounded out to the shortstop to bring in another run. Aaron Levinson (Seattle, WA) batted in the third run of the inning.
With the lead, Chris Koutsavlis retired six of the last eight Bonnie batters to give the Herd its third win of the season. It marked Koutsavlis' first career complete game and was the longest outing of his career. The nine innings topped his previous career high of eight innings, which he has done three times, most recently on May 22, 2004 against Buffalo.
Freshman David Slovak started game two, putting forth an effort equally as impressive as Koutsavlis, however, as was the case in game one, he gave up an early lead. In the second inning, the Bonnies registered three singles, including an RBI single to right by T.J. Pennino, to take a 1-0 lead.
In the bottom of the third inning, Marshall recorded its top offensive inning of the season, sending up a season-high 12 batters to the plate and recording seven runs on seven hits in the inning. Wolle led it off reaching on an error. After moving to second on a wild pitch, he scored on a single by Ptacek. After Frederick reached on a bunt single, Jamieson hit a sacrifice fly to left for the second run of the inning. Up next was Joe Glevenyak, who notched his second home run of the season, this one to right field, to make it a 4-1 game.
Tommy Johnson kept things going in the inning with a double to center to bring up Roddy Stieger, who made it a 6-1 game with MU's second home run of the inning. It marked Stieger's second of the season. Later in the inning, Nick Wolle completed the scoring, reaching base for the second time in the inning on an RBI single.
SBU got one of the runs back in the top of the fifth when Joe Rizzo hit a sacrifice fly to score Kieran Malone, who doubled to lead off the inning.
Marshall got the run back, along with three more, in the bottom of the inning. MU batted around for the second time in the game, scoring four runs. Frederick and Jamieson each recorded RBI singles while Tommy Johnson completed the scoring in the game for MU, hitting a two-RBI single to center to make it an 11-2 game.
The Bonnies scored a run in the top of the seventh, but Slovak was able to halt the run and give the Herd the doubleheader sweep. For Slovak, it was his best career outing. It marked his first collegiate win and first complete game. He also struck out a career high seven batters. It tied his longest career outing of seven innings, which he did in his first career start at Jacksonville State.
Last season, Marshall had only one complete game, which was thrown by Scott Henning. Henning went the full seven innings in game one of the April 6 doubleheader against Morehead State at University Heights.
MU out-hit SBU in both games, 9-8 and 14-6, respectively. Several batters had productive outings on the day. Leading the way was Joe Glevenyak, who went a combined 3-5 with four RBI's and two runs. Aaron Levinson, whose average has shot up to .412, was 3-4 and recorded his first RBI with Marshall. Adam Frederick got out of his recent slump with a 4-7 performance. He scored three runs and knocked in one. Tommy Johnson went 2-4 with 2 RBI's and a run while Roddy Stieger was 3-7, knocking in three runs.
Marshall will look to complete the series sweep in the final game of the series on Sunday when the teams square off in a 12 p.m. game at University Heights. The team will then head to Durham, NC to take on the Duke Blue Devils in 3 p.m. games on Tuesday and Wednesday before heading back to Huntington to start its final season in the Mid-American Conference, playing host to Eastern Michigan for a three-game series.
