Pereslucha Leads Gator Power Surge

Apr 18, 2007

Game 1 Box | Game 2 Box

MEADVILLE, Pa. – The Allegheny College baseball team came into Wednesday’s North Coast Athletic Conference doubleheader with Hiram College having scored 10 runs on just two occasions this spring, but behind a sudden power surge by freshman Mike Pereslucha (Pittsburgh, Pa./Kiski), the Gators completed a four-game sweep of the Terriers, totaling 26 runs over the final two games.

Allegheny (7-15, 4-4 NCAC), which beat Hiram (5-23, 1-9 NCAC) 10-3 and 8-6 on April 14, took the opener 14-7 and polished off the sweep with a 12-5 victory in the nightcap, picking up its fifth consecutive victory of the season and evening its conference record. Pereslucha came through in a big way for the hosts, hitting the first two home runs of his young career and totaling seven RBI over the two games. He finished 4-for-7 with four runs scored and raised his season batting average by 50 points.

The Gators trailed through the first four innings in game one against Hiram, but a huge fifth inning put the hosts up by a wide margin. Allegheny sent 12 batters to the plate in the inning, plating eight runs on just three hits. The Terrier defense and pitching got a little loose in the frame as the former tallied three errors and the latter accounted for three hit batters. Steve Beckett (Pittsburgh, Pa./Plum), right, and Eric Rich (McMurray, Pa./Peters Township) provided the big hits with a two-run double and two-run single, respectively, to give the Gators a 10-4 margin.

Hiram made it interesting with three more runs in the top half of the sixth, but Pereslucha left no doubt about the game’s outcome by slamming a three-run home run to left field. Rich, pictured below, picked up another RBI to give Allegheny its final 14-7 margin.

Pereslucha pitched the first five innings to get the win, surrendering six runs on nine hits and striking out four, while Colt Viehdorfer (Morrisdale, Pa./West Branch) threw the final two in relief, allowing two hits, one run, and striking out two. The top three hitters in the batting order for the Gators, Brian Schmidt (Utica, Pa./Franklin), Beckett, and Rich combined to go 5-for-11 with four runs and seven RBI in the opener.

The nightcap started out as a pitcher’s duel, but quickly erupted into an offensive show again by the fourth inning. After the Gators picked up the game’s first run in the second, they again went on the prowl in the final three frames, touching home plate 11 times. Pereslucha and Hess both picked up RBI singles as part of a three-run fourth, with the latter adding a bases-clearing double in the next inning to highlight a five-run frame. Pereslucha then capped his day in the bottom of the sixth inning by lifting a pitch high and deep over the wall in left-center, plating another trio of runs.

Hess finished 2-for-4 at the plate with four RBI, while also earning the win on the mound by allowing four runs on six hits in six innings. Pereslucha also sent home a quartet of runners and scored twice. Freshman Pete Obourn (Farmington, N.Y./Victor) rounded the bases a game-high three times in the nightcap, going 2-for-2 with two RBI and two walks, while Alex Herrnberger (Eighty Four, Pa./Canon McMillan) notched three base hits in game two and finished 4-for-7 with four runs scored over the two-game spread.

Allegheny will go for its sixth consecutive victory on Thursday, April 19, in a non-conference contest at Pitt-Bradford beginning at 4 p.m.

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