Admittedly tense, Slippery Rock’s Ryan Double strolled to the hill to make his first career varsity start on Friday afternoon.

He looked like he’d been there many times before.

The sophomore pitcher turned in five innings of work, giving up only two hits and working his way out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth frame. The Rockets topped visiting Greenville, 6-2.

“It was great outing for him,” Slippery Rock coach Derrick Wood said of Double’s showing. “He came off an arm injury, so I didn’t want him to go more than 70 (pitches) today. He was just efficient. He was at 16 (pitches) through the first two innings.

“That’s the big thing we’ve needed this year is guys to just throw strikes and let the defense work.”

Double was pitching for only the second time since separating the growth plate in his arm a year ago. He couldn’t throw at all, only hit. Back dealing, he got comfortable quickly, turning away five of his first six challengers. It wasn’t without a little luck, however.

The Trojans’ Jack Strausser notched a single up the middle in the game’s second at-bat. He took off on Double’s 0-2 offering to Noah Philson, which was lined straight to second baseman Lucas Allison and flung on to first for the double play.

“I definitely was nervous,” Double said. “My whole goal to start was to just get the first guy. To get that first strike and just calm down.”

From there, he wanted to pound the zone — 12 of his first 16 deliveries were strikes.

“It’s real nice to have a defense behind me,” Double said. “I know I can just pitch to contact and they’ll field the ball and make the plays for me.”

After he stranded a runner on second the inning before, Double had a bit of trouble with his pitch location, walking the base paths full with two gone in the fourth.

Hesitant and seemingly unsure of whether to bolt for home on an errant pitch soon after, Philson froze, then watched Slippery Rock catcher Kyle Ritenour zip the ball to third base. By the time he lunged back, Brett Galcik’s glove was there to slap him out and end the threat.

“We’ve been on the other end of those situations multiple times this year,” Wood said. “It’s good to finally have one go our way. All four of our losses have been by one run. It’s been one inning like that that usually we’ve been on the other end of.”

As of late, Wood said, the Rockets (4-4) had been struggling with execution. Punctual knocks counterbalanced any issues Friday.

“They (the Rockets) took advantage,” Greenville coach Ben Brunetta said. “They were able to get timely hits. We were able to put together some better at-bats than we have been ... but we just couldn’t find the holes. That’s kind of been the story for us here.”

Six different Slippery Rock players recorded a hit, including Double, whose RBI single in the fourth gave his team a 3-0 lead. The Trojans (2-6) pushed a run across on a blooper during the next half inning and a Slippery Rock error allowed another in the sixth.

By then, contributions from Nick Kingerski, Shane Thompson, Brett Galcik, Ethan Drushel, and Brody Galcik had done what was required for the victory.

“I’m happy with how we came out,” Wood said. “We didn’t give up, we didn’t get down ... and we finished. It was good today to have them do that.”

The win marked the Rockets’ finish of the first run-through of the region this campaign. They’ll play next at home against Grove City on Monday.

Greenville 000 110 0 — 2 2 3

Slippery Rock 010 221 x — 6 8 1

W: Ryan Double 5IP (2K, 5BB). L: Jack Strausser 5IP (3K, 1BB).

Greenville: Jack Strausser 1B, Soren Hedderick 1B

Slippery Rock (4-4, 3-3): Nick Kingerski 1B, Shane Thompson 1B, Brett Galcik 1B 2-RBI, Ethan Drushel 1B 2B R, Brody Galcik 1B RBI, Ryan Double 1B RBI

Monday: Grove City at Slippery Rock