Garrett Pelko was nearly perfect in a seven inning no-hitter, losing the perfecto in the sixth inning on an infield error. Misericordia athletics photo

Garrett Pelko threw a no-hitter in the opener to lead the Misericordia University baseball team to a doubleheader sweep, Sunday at Eastern.

Pelko struck out eight and issued just won walk over seven innings in a 7-0 win.

The Cougars scored all seven runs in the sixth inning as the broke open a scoreless game.

Tyler Holzapfel and Jeremy DeCotiis drove in two runs and Steve Weisensee had two hits.

Weisensee led off the sixth with a single to center and moved up when Holzapfel was hit by a pitch.  Brian Kay reached on an error to load the bases and DeCotiis singled to center to drive in two runs.

After Kay was caught stealing, Santo Guinta was hit by a pitch and Kerwien singled to right to make it 3-0.  Abate reached on an RBI-bunt single.  Brett Davis walked to load the bases and Jarema reached on an infield error to give the Cougars a 5-0 lead.

With two down, Holzapfel drove in the final two runs with a single to center.

In the nightcap, the Cougars scored six runs in the top of the first and went on to win 8-6.

Weisensee had three hits and two RBI and Kenny Jarema, DeCotiis, Billy Kerwien and Parker Abate all had two hits.

Jake Kurtz worked four innings to get the win with two innings of scoreless relief help from Kyle Melahn.

Jarema led off the game with a single to left and advanced to second on Weisensee's single to right.  One out later, Sean Lyons singled to left to drive in MU's first run. 

Santo Guinta and Kerwien had back-to-back two-out RBI-singles to left to make it 3-0.

Abate singled to load the bases and Brett Davis singled to left to drive in two runs for a 5-0 lead.  Jarema walked to re-load the bases and Weisensee beat out an infield single to finish the scoring.

Eastern battled to within 6-4 after four innings and the Cougars answered with a run in the top of the fifth.

Abate beat out a bunt to lead off the inning, moved to second on a sacrifice, and scored on Jarema's single to right.

Misericordia added a critical insurance run in the seventh.  Kerwien reached on an infield single and moved up on a sacrifice.  With two down, Jarema walked and Weisensee doubled to left center to give the Cougars an 8-4 lead.

Eastern opened the bottom of the seventh inning with three straight hits, but the Cougars turned a key 6-4-3 double play.  The Eagles added another run to get within 8-6, but Davis induced a game-ending ground out.

Misericordia improved to 22-8 overall and 13-2 in the MAC Freedom.  The Cougars will host Scranton, Monday at 4:00.