For Slippery Rock, it was all’s well that ends well.

The SRU baseball team took a 9-4 lead into the final three innings before holding on for a 9-8 victory over West Chester in the first game of the PSAC Tournament Wednesday at Kelly Automotive Park.

“Not the way we’d draw it up, but we’ll take it,” SRU coach Jeff Messer said. “Defense has been our trouble spot all year and it almost cost us today. But we were able to overcome it.”

Two errors helped West Chester put together a four-run fourth inning and grab a 4-2 lead. Tyler Walters’ solo homer in the third and a run-scoring double by Preston Falscino in the fourth had staked SRU to a 2-0 lead.

Jake Nogalo homered in the fifth and a two-out two-run single to center by Adam Urbania capped a four-run sixth and gave SRU a 7-4 advantage.

Urbania’s single extended his hitting streak to 33 games, which is the longest active streak in all of NCAA Division II.

“We played them down in Florida and knew they had some hitters,” West Chester coach Jad Prachniak said. “But their bats have gotten even better since that time.

“We knew we’d have our hands full trying to contain them.”

Kyle Vozar had a run-scoring double and No. 9 hitter Ty Zimmerman followed with a two-out RBI single to center as The Rock upped its lead to 9-4 in the seventh.

But West Chester wasn’t done.

SRU starting pitcher and North Allegheny product Ryan Oglesby hit a batter and walked two others to load the bases with two outs. He wound up throwing 129 pitches on the day.

“I was trying to get Ryan through the seventh. It was his last inning regardless,” Messer said. “I knew he was tiring, but Ryan Oglesby at 75 percent was the best option at that point.

“I was trying to look at the whole tournament. Sometimes you have to take chances.”

Prachniak took a chance of his own earlier in the game, replacing junior lead-off hitter and outfielder Drew Diehl with freshman Joey Coyle.

“There was an injury situation there and Joey was the next man up,” Prachniak said.

Coyle was 0-for-7 this season before drilling a three-run triple to the right field wall in the seventh. That drew West Chester within 9-7 and ended Oglesby’s day.

Grove City High graduate and former Butler BlueSox pitcher Jon Anderson took over on the mound for The Rock.

“Just come in and throw strikes,” Anderson said. “I knew I didn’t have much room for mistakes.”

Anderson had to get past Dylan Tice — the .450-hitting Golden Rams’ shortstop — to preserve the win. He struck out Tice to end the seventh, stranding Coyle at third.

Anderson allowed a solo homer to Bill Ford in the ninth, then walked Coyle with two outs.

“The one thing we didn’t want in that final inning was Tice coming to the plate as the winning run,” Messer admitted.

Anderson induced Tice to fly out to left to end the game.

“When that (Ford homer) left the yard, I couldn’t believe it was happening,” Anderson said. “I left a pitch up and I had to bear down.

“Ryan’s been great all year. Our defense didn’t help him much today and I didn’t want to let him down.”

Falascino paced an 11-hit Rock attack with two singles and a double. Vozar had a pair of doubles. SRU has now hit 63 home runs on the year.

Ford had three hits and scored three runs for West Chester. Matt Petrizzi had three singles and an RBI.

Kyle Schneider will pitch for The Rock in its 3:30 p.m. second-round game today against East Stroudsburg, an 18-11 winner over Mercyhurst.

Slippery Rock 001 114 200 — 9 11 2

West Chester 000 400 301 — 8 11 2

W: Ryan Oglesby 6.2IP (5K, 4BB). L: Nick Stallings 5.1IP (6K, 3BB).

Slippery Rock (30-16): Jake Nogalo HR 2-R, Tyler Walters HR, Adam Urbania 1B 2-RBI, Logan Brown 1B 2-R, Preston Falscino 2B 2-1B RBI, Kyle Vozar 2-2B 2-TBI 2-R, Jordan Faretta 1B RBI, Ty Zimmerman 1B RBI

West Chester (26-12): Drew Diehl 1B 2-RBI, Joey Coyle 3B 3-RBI, Matt Petrizzi 3-1B RBI, Justin Roman 1B, Robert Knox 2B 1B, Anthony Salomone 2-R, Bill Ford 2B 1B HR 2-RBI 3-R

Today’s PSAC Schedule: West Chester (26-12) vs. Mercyhurst (32-7), 9:30 a.m.; Shippensburg (25-24) vs. California (24-21), 12:30 p.m.; Slippery Rock (30-16) vs. East Stroudsburg (29-17), 3:30 p.m.; Seton Hill (40-9) vs. Millersville (39-9), 6:30 p.m.