The Wolverines repeated as PAC baseball champions, going 3-0 at the conference tournament for the second year in a row.
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The Wolverines repeated as PAC baseball champions, going 3-0 at the conference tournament for the second year in a row. |
Champs again!
by
Greg Knowlden, sports information student assistant
GREENVILLE, PA, April
27, 2002 -- The Grove City College baseball team (10-12) successfully defended
its PAC tournament championship Saturday at Thiel College by finishing off a
three game sweep for the second year in a row.
The Wolverines defeated the Tomcats Friday and Saturday to win the
tourney on Thiel’s home field.
Sophomore Greg Grupp (Harmony, PA/Slippery Rock) threw Grove City’s third
straight gem, striking out seven and allowing only seven baserunners in his
eight innings. Senior Justin Magee
(Grove City, PA/Grove City) entered in the ninth to combine with Grupp for the
shutout. Over the weekend,
Wolverine pitchers surrendered only one earned run in their 27 innings of work
as they struck out 24 would-be hitters and walked only five.
Grove City capitalized on leadoff baserunners in the first three frames.
Senior CF Eric Bell (Grove City, PA/Grove City) had hits to start the
first and third, and scored both times. In
the second, junior C Matt Skipper (Canton, OH/Canton South) led off with a
double, and was driven in on a two-base hit by freshman 3B John Mycyk
(Pittsburgh, PA/Shady Side Academy). The
Wolverines pushed the margin to 6-0 by scoring twice in the sixth, and closed
the afternoon’s offensive display by getting three runs in the eighth on
Skipper’s single, a double off the left-center field wall by freshman LF Mike
McMillen (Pittsburgh, PA/North Allegheny), and a single by junior SS Jason
Onyshko (Valencia, PA/Mars).
Skipper was 3-for-4 on the day and scored three times, and Bell was 2-of-4 at
the plate while scoring twice. Sophomore
2B Jake Cuthbert (Belle Vernon, PA/Belle Vernon) went 1-for-2 and walked three
times.
Bell, a local product playing his final conference games, went 7-for-12 in the
tournament and scored five runs while driving in three.
A walk and two hit-by-pitches raise the Wolverine leadoff hitter’s
weekend on-base percentage to .667 (10-of-15).
Bell also made the squad’s defensive play of the year, crashing into
the fence in left-center field to make a spectacular catch and protect a 4-0
advantage.
Grove City concludes its season schedule over the next two weeks, with the only
home contest a double-header next Saturday during Parents’ Weekend.
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