KUTZTOWN, Pa. -- A long ball from senior catcher
Antonio Rossillo (Warrington, Pa./Archbishop Wood), matched with another masterclass on the mound from
Jake Skrocki (Royersford, Pa./Spring-Ford), powered the Kutztown University baseball team (25-15, 11-8 PSAC) over East Stroudsburg (31-10, 12-7 PSAC) 4-2 Thursday afternoon at North Campus Field.
The Kutztown offense only mustered three hits in the contest but made all of them count. The Golden Bears got three runs in the bottom of the third inning. Jason Wolff (Hillsborough, N.J./Hillsborough) kicked off the inning with a triple and was promptly driven home via a Joey Pettinelli (Broomall, Pa./Marple Newtown) sac fly to make it 1-0. In the next at-bat, Ethan Martini (Trevose, Pa./Father Judge) reached first via an error, followed by Rossillo's two-run blast which made it 3-0.
KU's third hit and fourth run came an inning later. Jimmy Kerley (Indian Trail, N.C./Sun Valley) walked and advanced to second following a Brennan Rozich (Oxford, Pa./Oxford) sac bunt. Designated hitter Dominic Proietto (Norristown, Pa./Norristown) stepped up to the plate and singled to center field, scoring Kerley to make it 4-0.
The Warriors cut into the Golden Bear lead in the top of the sixth. A wild pitch, followed by a balk in the same at-bat plated two Warriors as ESU made it a 4-2 game.
That would be the greatest threat from the Warriors as Jake Skrocki (Royersford, Pa./Spring-Ford) was surgical on the mound. The KU starter went eight frames, allowing two earned runs and eight hits, before being pulled in favor of Gavin Moretski (Harleysville, Pa./La Salle College H.S.) in the top of the ninth. Moretski got the first two outs but was ejected, leaving it to Tyler Cleveland (Pillow, Pa./Upper Dauphin) to come in and secure out number three and the save as the Golden Bears held on for the 4-2 win.
KU did a great job against East Stroudsburg's ace Chase Nowak, chasing him out of the game after only four innings of work. He took the loss while Skrocki earned the win. Both now sit tied at the top of PSAC with eight wins on the season.
It's another massive win in what has been a historic bounce-back season for the Golden Bears. ESU entered the day receiving votes in the NCBWA Top 25 and is currently ranked No. 20 in the Collegiate Baseball Division II poll. KU also improves to 6-1 in PSAC East series openers in 2023.
The Golden Bears still occupy the fourth seed in the PSAC East with Bloomsburg, who also has an 11-8 conference record, on their heels. The Huskies defeated Mansfield in their series opener today and have two more games against the Mounties tomorrow.
KU and ESU continue the series tomorrow, April 28 at East Stroudsburg, with a doubleheader starting at 11 a.m.
