Van Zanic
Director of Sports Information
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NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 5, 2008
HIGH DRAMA ENDS IN GRAND FINALE FASHION,
GENEVASECURES .500 RECORD WITH LATE INNING HEROICS
Beaver Falls, PA - Coming into Monday′s doubleheader against Point Park, Geneva′s baseball team knew it needed to win at least one game to secure a .500 regular season record. Late in game two, it appeared that the Golden Tornadoes would come up short of its goal when the day started. After dropping game one by the score of 9-5, the Golden Tornadoes rallied from seven runs down to win a thriller 10-9 and move their regular season record to 16-16.
The doubleheader started with Geneva posting a three-spot in the bottom of the first capped by a two-run single from Steve Bowser. That would clearly be only the beginning of Bowser′s heroics on this day. Point Park took control of game one with five runs in the third to take a lead it would never relinquish. The Pioneers put the game out of reach with four insurance runs in the sixth inning. Phil Shallenberg took the loss after working just 2 1/3 innings and allowing five runs. Geneva′s offense did manage to bang out nine hits, including two each from Joel Gatti, Joe Jurinko and Steve Bowser.
Game two looked to be heading in the same disappointing direction as Point Park jumped out to a 9-2 lead after 3 ½ innings. The Golden Tornadoes picked up a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth off solo homers from Joe Jurinko and Derek Sumner to claw back into the game. A three-run fifth inning made things very interesting as Geneva cut Point Park′s lead to just two runs. Trailing by a pair in the bottom of the seventh, the Golden Tornadoes got an RBI double from Andy Hiskey and a run scoring two-base hit from Andy Lubich to tie the game. With one out and the winning run on second it was once again Steve Bowser who stepped up with the game winning single to send the home crowd away happy.
Joel Gatti continued his hot hitting with three more hits, while Andy Lubich finished the second game with a perfect 4-4 day at the dish. Andy Hiskey, Phil Shallenberger and Jon Jurinko each had a pair of hits in the victory.
While Bowser turned in the big hit on offense, it was the arm of junior Derek Sumner that stole the show. Entering the game in the fourth inning, Sumner pitched four innings of scoreless relief to pick up his sixth victory of the season. Even more impressive were Sumner′s six strikeouts which moved him to the top of the Geneva record books with 76 punch outs in a single season breaking the old record of 74 that has stood since 1982.
Geneva will now await the NCCAA post-season with either a regional tournament taking place from May 14-17 or heading directly to the national tournament, which the Golden Tornadoes will serve as the host school in Struthers, OH from May 21-24.
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