SLIPPERY ROCK — Two outs? Two strikes?

No problem.

Not for these Slippery Rock hitters.

When the margin of error is at its slimmest, that’s when the Rockets’ baseball team has shined lately.

Slippery Rock did it again in a 12-0, five-inning home win over Conneaut Monday afternoon, scoring eight runs with two out.

“We really preach good approaches,” said senior center fielder Travis Lauster, who has made a habit this season of hitting well with two outs and a two-strike count. “With two strikes, we’re really disciplined. We go the other way with the ball a lot. If you can go the other way, your average increases. You’re going to get guys on base. Basically, good things happen.”

A lot of good things have been happening for Slippery Rock this season.

The Rockets (15-1), who clinched the Region 6-AAA title last week and closed out the league schedule at a perfect 8-0, have blistered the baseball of late.

Slippery Rock is batting .379 as a team and has scored 129 runs in 16 games. As a team, the Rockets have only struck out 69 times in 430 at-bats and drawn 59 walks.

That goes back to the two-strike approach, said Rockets’ head baseball coach Nate McCollough.

“When we take batting practice, we try to simulate situations the best we can,” McCollough said. “With two strikes, we tell them it is a team at-bat and that means hitting a sacrifice fly or hitting the ball to the right side of the infield to move someone over.

“Two strikes, at any level and especially at the high school level, you have to put the ball in play,” McCollough added. “When you have team speed, it puts pressure on the defense. That’s what we preach.”

It has worked.

Once on base, the Rockets like to show off that team speed.

Slippery Rock swiped four more bases against Conneaut (8-10, 3-5) to bring its team total to 52.

The Rockets have only been caught stealing six times.

“We practice base running a lot and we have a bunch of fast guys and they are smart,” said Lauster, who had a triple and scored three runs Monday. “It just enables us to do all kinds of different things. We can hit-and-run. We can bunt. We can steal. We steal so much, it really helps us out a lot and it helps the batters out, too.”

When the season started, McCollough experimented with his lineup and finally decided to stick with an unorthodox one with four left-handed hitters in a row at the top of the order.

Those four — Ryan Lauster, Jason Bennett, Travis Lauster and Danny Williams — went up against Conneaut southpaw Jesse Richards and went 5-for-11 with six runs scored and two RBI.

“I had four or five lineups that I liked and I had this lefty, lefty, lefty, lefty one,” McCollough said. “It was a case where I thought, ‘Do I like it, or do I not like it?’ There are three guys at the top who just have speed and then the way Danny has been hitting in the four-hole, it just works so well.”

Slippery Rock has a pair of games against non-region opponents this week to close out the regular season before the District 10 Class AAA playoffs begin a week from today.

Two years ago, the Rockets won the District 10 title as a decided underdog. This season, the Rockets may be the favorite.

There’s pressure there. But Slippery Rock has shown with two outs and two strikes at the plate that it can handle pressure.

Pressure?

No problem.

“Once playoffs start, you’re 0-0 and you have to play like it,” Travis Lauster said. “You’re one-and-done if you don’t have that mentality. Two years ago, a bunch of our starters played on that team, so we know what to do. We know how to handle it.”

Conneaut 000 00x x — 0 2 2

Slippery Rock 272 1xx x — 12 11 2

W: Gunner Becker 5IP (7K, 2BB). L: Jesse Richards 2IP (3K, 4BB).

Conneaut (8-10, 3-5): Taylor Williams 2-1B

Slippery Rock (15-1, 8-0): Ryan Lauster 2B 2-1B RBI, Jason Bennett 1B RBI, Travis Lauster 3B, Jason Rockburn 2-1B 3-RBI, Josh Bowser 1B RBI, Becker 1B 2-RBI, Jake Arienzo 1B RBI, Cody Lawniczak 1B RBI

Today: Slippery Rock at Franklin