California begins PSAC tournament play
The PSAC baseball tournament will have a completely new look to it this year as opposed to last year. That is, except for California University of Pa.
Of the four teams in the 2003 three-day, double-elimination tournament at Boyertown, which begins today, the Vulcans are the only one back from last year.
California swept a doubleheader from visiting Clarion on Saturday to edge out Indiana for second place in the PSAC-West and qualify for the tournament for the fourth time in head coach Mike Conte’s six years at the helm.
The Vulcans finished the regular season at 12-8 in the PSAC-West, six games in back of first-place Slippery Rock (41-8, 18-2) and one game ahead of IUP (19-20, 11-9). Conte’s squad went 26-21 overall, marking the fourth consecutive year it has won at least 26 games.
Cal will play the first game of the tournament against PSAC-East champion West Chester (32-9, 18-6) today at 3:30 p.m. Slippery Rock, whose roster includes Uniontown graduate Kevin Dvorchak, will take on the PSAC-East’s second-place team in Shippensburg (26-19, 17-7) at 7 p.m.
On Friday, the losers of Thursday’s two games meet at 12 noon while the winners clash at 3:30 p.m. The winner of the noon contest and the loser of the 3:30 p.m. contest play at 7 p.m.
The championship will be decided on Saturday. The winners from Friday’s latter two games play at 12 noon and again immediately following if necessary, due to the double-elimination format.
Edinboro beat IUP in the first game of their twinbill on Saturday to open the door for California to reach the postseason.
Connellsville graduate Nick Damico came through for the Vulcans in their first game against Clarion, tossing a complete game in a 2-1 win. Cal trailed 1-0 after three innings, but Bryan Hartung hit a game-tying home run in the fourth, and Brian Stoecklein singled in the go-ahead run in the fifth. Damico made sure the slim lead stood up.
The Vulcans rolled to an easy 11-1 victory in the second game to sew up their playoff berth as Bernie Smith was 4 for 4 with a homer, triple and five RBIs, and Stoecklein went 3 for 4 with two doubles and four RBIs.
California had won back-to-back PSAC-West titles before ending up behind The Rock this season.
The Vulcans, paced by record-setting years by Hartung and Stoecklein, and a stellar season by Uniontown graduate Jason Greene, were third in the PSAC in batting with a .336 average.
Hartung, a senior right fielder, hit 15 home runs this season, giving him 39 for his career, both Cal records. He also set the school record for career RBIs (166) by adding 45 more this year, and can eclipse two more career marks with one more run scored and two more hits.
Hartung hit .355 and had a .704 slugging percentage during the regular season.
Stoecklein, a senior infielder, set Cal single-season records in at bats (184), hits (76) and doubles (26), leading the PSAC in the latter two categories. He also was the PSAC regular-season leader in batting average (.413), RBIs (54), slugging percentage (.717), total bases (132).
Greene, a senior infielder, was second in the PSAC in on-base percentage (.479) behind teammate Tim Donnelly (.489) and third in hitting (.406). Greene contributed in several different ways to the Vulcans’ success. He had two sacrifice bunts, four sacrifice flies and five stolen bases.
California placed four in the PSAC’s top five in batting average. Following Stoecklein, Slippery Rock’s Joe Neidrick (.411) and Greene were Lee Petersavage and Mike Larson, both of whom hit .380.
Larson tied for the PSAC lead in steals (22) while Smith led in sacrifice bunts (7).
Bob Saddler is the Vulcans’ leader in pitching wins. He is 6-3 with a 3.86 ERA.
Damico is 4-3 with one save and a team-best 3.68 ERA. He’s allowed 39 hits and 23 walks with 45 strikeouts in 44 innings, and tossed three complete games.
Scott Belcastro (4-2, 3.80) and Justin Taylor (4-3, 4.50) were also four-game winners.
Larson also contributes on the mound. He’s 3-2 with a 4.54 ERA and tied Damico for the team lead in complete games with three.
The Vulcans feature five other area players on their roster in addition to Greene and Damico in Connellsville graduates Jason Halfhill, Dennis Show and Todd Bell, California graduate Bill Scrip, and Jefferson-Morgan graduate Adam Dukate.
Four of those players are pitchers in Halfhill, a junior right-hander who is 1-1 with a 6.00 ERA in six games, including two starts; Show, a senior right-hander who is 2-0 with a 6.06 ERA in 12 relief appearances; Bell, a freshman right-hander who is 0-1 with a 5.87 ERA in eight relief appearances; and Dukate, a freshman left-hander who is 2-4 with a 6.40 ERA in eight games, including seven starts and one complete game.
Scrip, a junior first baseman, started six times in 15 games and batted .211.
Slippery Rock will be making its eighth tournament appearance in nine years, missing only last season in that span.
Dvorchak is The Rock’s top reliever. The senior right-hander is 2-1 with a 1.19 ERA and three saves. He allowed 24 hits and only two walks in 22 2-3 innings.
Dvorchak also helped Slippery Rock at the plate by hitting .382 with three doubles and a triple in 34 at bats.