The Pitt-Johnstown Mountain Cats baseball team was swept in its conference opener against the California (Pa.) Vulcans.

The Mountain Cats gave up 46 runs in the four games.

Senior pitcher Ty Black said the pitchers need to continue to work hard and improve.

We need to get back to work. Simple as that if one gives up, then we all give up. Got to wake up with the tenacity to want to win and find it,” Black said.

A bright spot for the Mountain Cats pitching staff was sophomore Trent Martin.

Martin pitched five innings Saturday in game two of a doubleheader. He gave up two runs, three hits and struck out four batters.

Martin said that it was a real group effort behind him in the field.

Early on, the fielders made some strong plays to improve the attitude of the team and give me confidence on the mound,” said Martin.

As an offense, the Mountain Cats were led by Dillon Boyer, who went nine for 14 at the plate, and Brett Hileman, who went nine for 15 at the plate.

Boyer said that the offense was good for the first three games of the series but came up just short in game four.

“I thought we swung the bats well this week. We scored 33 runs in the four games. We just need to continue to work hard and improve each week,” said Boyer.

Game one, the Mountain Cats fell behind early but battled back in the sixth inning to tie the game at eight.

With two outs and runners on second and third base Hileman homered to left center to tie the game.

With the go-ahead run on third base, Joe Gagliardi flew out to center field to end the inning.

California (Pa.) in the top of the seventh inning scored five runs to take back the lead. The five-run deficit would be too much for the Mountain Cats who scored one more in the bottom of the inning.

In game two, the Mountain Cats took an early, 9-5 lead.

Black and Pitt-Johnstown junior pitcher Shane Supanick couldn’t hold onto the lead as the Vulcans scored five runs off them in the sixth and seventh inning.

Game three, the Mountain Cats scored early highlighted by a 2 RBI double by Hileman to make it 5-1 in favor of the Mountain Cats.

The Vulcans used an 11-run fourth inning that was too much for the Mountain Cats to overcome.

The Mountain Cats trailing 18-5, continued to battle and scored 8 runs in the top of the seventh inning, highlighted by freshman infield Dakotah Byers’ grand slam.

Game four was a low-scoring affair that the Vulcans won behind a two- run sixth inning.

The Mountain Cats who were leading , 2-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth gave up the go ahead run on a throwing error by Dylan Kerstetter.

The Mountain Cats next game will be against Slippery Rock who swept Clarion University.

The Mountain Cats’ next home game is to be 1 p.m. Saturday.