MILLERSVILLE, Pa. – The Bloomsburg University baseball team saw another fantastic season come to an end on Saturday afternoon as the Huskies dropped an 11-0 decision at the hands of Mercyhurst University for the Atlantic Region I championship at Millersville University's Cooper Park. Bloomsburg ends its 2019 campaign with a 35-16 record.
 
The Lakers will advance to next weekend's Atlantic Regional Championship in a best-of-three series against either Gannon University or the University of Charleston.
 
Bloomsburg entered the day needing to knock off the Lakers twice after the Huskies dropped the 9-8, 18-inning marathon to Mercyhurst to open the tournament on Thursday. Bloomsburg staved off elimination on Friday with a 2-1 victory over top-seeded Millersville to keep the season alive. Mercyhurst, meanwhile, followed suit with a 2-0 win over Millersville on Friday to eliminate the Marauders and remain unbeaten in the bracket.
 
However, Mercyhurst exploded for three runs in the second and then added seven runs in the third as it jumped out to a 10-0 advantage after three innings.
 
In the second, the big blow was a two-run double with one out off the bat of Luke Baranchak to give the Lakers a 2-0 lead against junior righthander JJ Spehrley (Pottsville, Pa./Pottsville Area). Mercyhurst added its third run of the frame with a two-out RBI single from Domenic DeRenzo.
 
Things unraveled for the Huskies in the bottom of the third as the Lakers touched up Spehrley and junior reliever Ed Herbener (Drums, Pa./MMI Preparatory School) for seven runs on only three hits. Spehrley started the inning by walking the bases loaded which ended his afternoon. Herbener came on and allowed an RBI single to Josh Surowiec to extend the advantage to 4-0. Junior Cole Swiger (Maple Glen, Pa./Upper Dublin) made a strong throw from right field to nab Alex O'Donnell at the plate as the Lakers tried to push across another run. But back-to-back walks pushed the lead to 5-0, an RBI single from Don Cecere extended the lead to 6-0, and then a grand slam home run by DeRenzo blew the game open.
 
Senior Trey Hinkle (Macungie, Pa./Emmaus) came on in relief and got out of the third inning and pitched scoreless fourth and fifth innings before the Lakers scored their final run of the game in the bottom of the sixth on a sacrifice fly from O'Donnell.
 
Senior Zach Newmyer (New Cumberland, Pa./Red Land) pitched a scoreless seventh and got the first out of the eighth before being lifted with an apparent injury after a pair of walks. Senior Jeremy Zezza (Exeter, Pa./Wyoming Area) finished off the frame with an inning-ending double play.
 
Offensively, the Huskies could not get anything going against Mercyhurst starter Christian Young. The righthander went the distance as he allowed only three hits – a single by Swiger in the second, a single by senior Ryan Shiffer (Toms River, N.J./Toms River South) in the seventh, and a triple by redshirt freshman Carter Chasanov (Magnolia, Del./Polytech) in the ninth. He walked one and struck out seven in the complete-game shutout victory to improve to 6-3 on the season.
 
Spehrley suffered the loss to fall to 6-3 on the campaign.
 
Bloomsburg's 35 victories are the second-most in program history trailing only the 37 wins the program won in 1995 when the Huskies won the North Atlantic Regional Championship and advanced to the Division II College World Series.
 
Last weekend, Bloomsburg made history by winning the program's first Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championship since 1965 by going 3-0 at the conference tournament with decisive victories over Mercyhurst, Millersville, and West Chester. Then, on Friday, the Huskies staved off elimination behind the arm of senior Ashton Raines (Wallingford, Pa./Strath Haven) for the program's first NCAA victory since that 1995 squad.
 
Over the last two seasons, the Huskies have gone 66-36 with back-to-back trips to both the PSAC and NCAA Atlantic Regional tournaments.
 
Bloomsburg says goodbye to seven seniors from this year's roster – Mark Bobko (Metuchen, N.J./St. Joseph Metuchen), Trey Hinkle (Macungie, Pa./Emmaus), Colton Hooker (Warrington, Pa./Upper Moreland), Zach Newmyer (New Cumberland, Pa./Red Land), Ashton Raines (Wallingford, Pa./Strath Haven), Ryan Shiffer (Toms River, N.J./Toms River South), and Jeremy Zezza (Exeter, Pa./Wyoming Area).