Published: April 27, 2008 11:23 pm      

Sports briefs - 4/28

BASEBALL

UPJ sets record for season wins

The Pitt-Johnstown baseball team, ranked third in the North Atlantic Region, earned a 9-4 and 8-2 sweep at Ohio Valley Saturday night to improve to 35-15-1 and break the school’s single-season win mark for the eighth time in the last 11 years.

Matt Hanley hit two home runs and drove in six in the opener, before adding his fourth homer of the series in the nightcap.

UPJ broke the single-season win mark set in 2006 when the team posted a 33-18 record and advanced to its first NCAA Regional Tournament.

Hanley wrapped up the three-game series 7-for-12 at the plate with four home runs, 14 RBIs and seven runs. As a team, Pitt-Johnstown hit nine homers and outscored Ohio Valley 31-10 in the three-game series.



Field set for WVIAC tourney

The pairings are complete for the 2008 WVIAC Baseball Championship.

All six teams in the field own 26 or more victories, including a quartet of 30-plus win squads, as the tournament moves to Point Stadium

Friday's opening contests include Northern Division champion Pitt-Johnstown (35-15-1) facing Central Division runner-up Alderson-Broaddus (26-16-1) in the 9:30 a.m. opener. Another 9:30 a.m. start at UPJ’s campus field sees red-hot West Virginia State (30-11), the Southern Division winner, against Northern Division second-place finisher Shepherd (28-19).

The final first-round game has West Virginia Wesleyan (31-15), the victors in the Central Division, playing Southern Division bridesmaid Concord (35-11).

Pitt-Johnstown enters the tournament with a 10-game win streak. The Mountain Cats won two games of a three-game set with Alderson-Broaddus earlier this season. UPJ won 3-2 and 8-4 on March 21 before the teams battled to a 4-4 tie on the following day in a contest stopped due to weather after six innings.



Curve drop series finale

ERIE – The Erie SeaWolves used a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh by prized Tigers prospect Wilkin Ramirez to slip by the Altoona Curve Sunday at Jerry Uht Park by a 5-4 count. The loss is the third straight for the Curve.

Former State College reliever Chris Castorri (0-1) took the loss in his Double-A debut. Castorri is the second player in history to play for both the Spikes and the Altoona Curve, joining Brandon Williams (2007).

Melvin Dorta hit his second home run of the series in the fourth inning to tie the game, 1-1. The Curve tacked on to their lead in the top of the sixth by way of a Jonel Pacheco RBI single, and a sacrifice fly from Anthony Webster, to put Altoona up, 3-2.

Castorri tossed three innings, allowing two runs on five hits and struck out five batters.