Box Score 1 | Box Score 2



Kutztown 4, East Stroudsburg 3 (HTML Game One Box Score)
 
Kutztown 13, East Stroudsburg 7 (HTML Game Two Box Score)
 
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KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The 16th-ranked Kutztown University baseball team broke the bats out on Senior Day and clinched its place in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Tournament in May with a pair of wins over East Stroudsburg University at North Campus Field. Kutztown won the opener 4-3 and the nightcap 13-7.
 
With the win, the Golden Bears (29-11, 14-6 PSAC East) secured one of the four slots in the Eastern Division with four conference games to go in the regular season. Kutztown currently is in second in the East and will need Millersville to drop three of four next week against ESU combined with a Kutztown sweep of West Chester to reach the top spot.
 
“I knew we had a pretty good team coming in this year,” head coach Chris Blum said. “I thought it would come down to the last weekend for us against West Chester (the defending PSAC and NCAA Champions) to make a playoff spot, but now we get a chance to knock them out next weekend. We are in a great position heading into the final week of the season.”
 
“I feel our preparation was much better today than it was yesterday,” Blum continued. “I gave our team a quote of, 'the score takes care of itself when you take care of what precedes the score'. I can't say if the team took that as inspiration or not, but I know the mental and physical approach played a significant factor in our improvement today.”
 
Saturday marked Senior Day for 10 Golden Bears. Among them were Todd Rubendall (Collegeville, PA/Methacton), Tom Neely (Philadelphia, PA/Archbishop Ryan), Brett Hauck (Kutztown, PA/Kutztown), Billy Felo (Dauphin, PA/Central Dauphin/Chesapeake College), Matt Albaugh (Hatfield, PA/North Penn), Gilbert Vega (Lancaster, PA/J.P. McCaskey), Jordan Garcia (Mount Carmel, PA/Fleetwood), J.R. Seader (Piscataway, NJ/Piscataway/ Maryland-Baltimore County), Brandon Shurr (Bernville, PA/Schuylkill Valley), and Damon Valloreo (Vincentown, N.J./Burlington CCC).
 
Game One
 
Kutztown overcame a three-run deficit to the Warriors (27-14, 11-9) in the opener. Three Golden Bears tallied multi-hit games as Colin Holmes (Ewing, NJ/Ewing) picked up the win on the hill with 5.1 innings of work and three strikeouts.
 
Trailing 3-0 in the third, sophomore Ricky Gorrell (Royersford, PA/Spring-Ford) hit a two-out double to score Rubendall to cut the lead to 3-1. Rubendall tied the game with a two-run single in the fourth.
 
Junior Kyle Stoudt (Mertztown, PA/Brandywine Heights) led off the fifth with a double, and was knocked in by Albaugh the following at-bat for the game-winning hit.
 
Freshman Matt Swarmer (Mohnton, PA/Governor Mifflin) relieved Holmes with one out in the sixth and sat down both of the batters he faced. Garcia recorded the first out of the seventh as Felo came in and retired the final two batters for his team-leading fifth save of the season.
 
“I'm real confident in many of the guys in our bullpen,” Blum said. “We all still have work to do, but I have a great deal of confidence in five or six guys in the bullpen right now.”
 
Along with Gorrell and Rubendall, sophomore Brandon Martinez (Lansdale, PA/North Penn) had a multi-hit game with two in the opener as Kutztown had 10 hits.
 
Game Two
 
The teams traded two-run innings in the first. KU had RBI's from Stoudt and John Dockins (Cinnaminson, NJ/Cinnaminson (Frederick CC)). Dockins gave the Golden Bears the lead in the third with a two-out single up the middle to score Gorrell. Joe Peters (Kutztown, PA/Kutztown (Delaware Technical CC)) came in to pinch hit the next at-bat and drove in Travis Kreitz (Gilbertsville, PA/Boyertown) with a single to right field. Dockins went on to score in the inning off a double steal attempt.
 
ESU plated a run in the fifth, but was plagued by errors in the sixth that broke the game open. ESU committed three straight fielding errors that led to eight KU runs in the inning. After the errors to load the bases for Kutztown, Stoudt was hit by a pitch to score a run, Albaugh hit a single, and Kreitz and Shurr each hit two-run doubles to give the Golden Bears a healthy 13-3 lead with one inning to play.
 
The Warriors closed out the day with four unearned runs including a three-run homer with two outs.
 
Brandon Shimo (Jermyn, PA/Lakeland (Lackawanna)) picked up his fifth win of the season with 4.2 innings of work on the mound. He struck out two batters and allowed three runs, two earned.
 
James Rossi (Marlton, NJ/Cherokee) picked up the two-inning save as he entered the game with Kutztown leading 5-3 in the sixth. He struck out two batters, including the final batter of the game, as none of his four runs allowed were earned.
 
The Golden Bears return to action on Tuesday, April 30 at North Campus Field to face Philadelphia University for a nine-inning single game beginning at 2 p.m.