Slippery Rock, Allegheny’s seasons end on sour note

Losing is never easy, and it was an especially tough time last weekend for the Slippery Rock and Allegheny baseball teams, both of which were trounced in regional championship games.

The losses sidelined Slippery Rock and Allegheny in their efforts to reach another CWS.

Slippery Rock, which had reached the NCAA Division II CWS the past three seasons, was beaten, 8-1, by Kutztown in the Division II North Atlantic Region title game. Allegheny, which finished third in the Division III CWS last season, fell, 13-2, to Marietta in the Division III Mideast Region final.

'We didn't lose this final game, Kutztown won it,' Slippery Rock coach Jeff Messer said. 'They have the best pitching staff in our region and they go the key hits when they needed them, so they deserve to be going to the World Series.'

But both teams finished with more-than-respectable records. Slippery Rock, the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division champion, was 31-21. Allegheny, which was ranked as high as No. 2 in the Division III poll, closed at 32-10.

Slippery Rock loses seven players, including three position starters and two pitchers. Among Allegheny's losses are its top hitter (right fielder Ben Couch) and top pitcher (Scott Swinchock).

IT'S A RECORD

Geneva will send a school-record five athletes to the NAIA Track and Field Championships in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Friday.

'It is hard to believe our program has come this far in such a short time,' Geneva coach Bret Otte said. We can truly say our program has gone to the next level.'

Former Butler star Erin Ward, who set a Geneva record in the javelin this season with a throw of 130 feet, 4 inches, will be joined at the national meet by Anne McCready (100-meter hurdles), Rob Edgard (800-meter run), Kurt Phillips (400-meter hurdles) and Dale Steigerwald (long jump).

BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE

Mount Aloysius announced it will break ground at 10 a.m. Friday for an athletic field complex to be known as the Ray S. and Louise S. Walker Athletic Field Complex.

The ceremony will be held on the upper campus, near the Pierce Hall parking lot. The complex will include soccer, baseball and softball fields as well as an intramural practice field.

The groundbreaking is part of a $1.5 million improvement project at the NAIA school, which is located in Cresson, Cambria County.

EXCELLENT STANDING

Carnegie Mellon placed two players on the Verizon/CoSIDA College Division Academic All-District Spring Men's At-Large Team.

Kayvon Fatahalian, the 2000 NCAA Division III singles champion in men's tennis, and golfer Jason Lawrence were among 10 first-team honorees. Both men carry 4.0 grade-point averages - Fatahalian in computer science and Lawrence in electrical and computer engineering.

Matthew Sowa, a tennis player at Allegheny who has a 3.57 GPA while majoring in physics, also was named to the first team.

Both schools compete in NCAA Division III.

Dave Mackall's Small-college2Day column appears Wednesday in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. His e-mail address is davmackall@aol.com .