Series Stats

MILLERSVILLE, Pa. – The Kutztown University baseball team won 1-of-2 games on the road at Millersville University on Saturday, falling 5-2 and winning 3-2, salvaging a weekend split with the regionally-ranked Marauders in its first complete Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) series of the 2018 campaign. 

Winners of the opening game of the series at home on Friday afternoon, KU then dropped its next two contests to MU, losing game two at home and game three on the road 4-3 and 5-2, respectively. Needing a positive result in the final game to earn a series split, Kutztown delivered, grinding out a 3-2 victory to take 2-of-4 from Millersville.

Bo Rottet (Tamaqua, Pa./Tamaqua) hit .533 on the weekend, going 8-for-15 at the dish with three runs scored and three doubles. Ryan Cox (Aliquippa, Pa./Hopewell (St. Bonaventure)) continues to be an effective bat producing runs in the middle of the order, collecting a team-high six RBI and hitting .417 in four games. Dariel Richardson (Reading, Pa./Reading) hit .333 with a double and all-important home run to get KU out to a 2-0 lead in game four. 

Mike Kammerer (Allentown, Pa./Allentown Central Catholic) and Michael Hunter (Mertztown, Pa./Brandywine Heights (Marist)) both earned wins as starters for the Maroon and Gold with Hunter getting the game one victory and Kammerer going 6.0 strong innings in game four to claim his third win of the season. Gavilan Fogarty-Harnish (Ephrata, Pa./Ephrata) finished off the win for Kammerer in the seventh, getting the save with 1.0 scoreless inning in relief. 

Game One 

Cox singled to left driving in Rottet to open the scoring, getting the Golden Bears on the board first.

MU responded with two in the home-half of the first to take a 2-1 lead after one. KU starter Stephen Wagner Jr. (Henderson, Nev./Boulder City (Western Oregon)) then settled in at this point, keeping Millersville off the board for the next 4.0 innings.

Cox came through again in the third with his second RBI single of the game, plating Rottet to tie the score at 2-all. That was enough to chase MU starter Drew Miller, who gave way to reliever Bobby Dorta. Dorta kept the KU offense at bay for the entirety of his relief appearance, surrendering just one hit 4.2 innings. 

With this pitcher's dual deadlocked at 2-2 into the sixth, MU took advantage of a few Maroon and Gold miscues to score three runs off of Wagner (0-1) in the bottom of the sixth. Dorta finished it off in the seventh, improving his record to 1-1 with the win.

Game Two

In a weekend series where runs had been at a premium for its entirety, its final game began no differently. Kutztown starter Kammerer and MU starter Daniel Ross kept both teams from scoring in the first inning, but that would all change in the second.

After Ross had been cruising through 1.2 innings, Tanner Miller (Elizabethville, Pa./Upper Dauphin Area) reached base on a single with two outs. Richardson then stepped to the plate and belted his third bomb of the season to left field on the first pitch, putting KU up 2-0.

MU scratched out one run off of Kammerer in both the fourth and the sixth innings, evening the score at two headed into the final inning. Richardson singled to lead off the seventh, putting the potential winning run aboard. A Jake Augustus (Schnecksville, Pa./Northwestern Lehigh (Winthrop)) single moved Richardson to second, bringing Rottet to the plate. Rottet laced a single through the left side, scoring Richardson to give the Maroon and Gold a 3-2 lead it would not relinquish.

Fogarty-Harnish allowed a few baserunners in the seventh, but was able to nail the door shut, earning the save and sealing the 3-2 win.

Kutztown hosts a non-conference matchup with Saint Thomas Aquinas in its next competition on Tuesday, April 3 at 3:30 p.m. from North Campus Field.