SU baseball sweeps first PSAC series since joining the PSAC East in 2009

The Shippensburg University baseball team picked up its first series sweep in conference play since its 2009 shift back to the PSAC Eastern Division by winning both games of a Sunday doubleheader at Millersville, taking the opener 5-0 and the other 4-3 from Marauder Park.

SU has now won six of its last seven games and continues to excel when it gets solid production from its pitching and defense. In 18 of the team’s 19 victories thus far, the Raiders have yielded four runs or less. Its Game 1 shutout marked the fourth time the team has blanked an opponent this year.

SU’s last PSAC Eastern Division series sweeps came in 2001 over MU and East Stroudsburg.

On Sunday, Tom Bush had his best outing of the season with six shutout innings. He allowed just three hits, all singles, and two walks while striking out a career-high eight hitters to run his season record up to 3-2.

Austin Bartley relieved Bush in the opener and earned the victory in Game 2 with 1.1 shutout innings of relief, working out of a jam in the fifth inning. Bartley has not allowed a run in his last four appearances, extending his scoreless streak to 6.2 innings. Against PSAC opponents this season, Bartley has allowed one earned run in 13.1 innings of work, striking out seven.

Pat Kregeloh made his second career start in Game 2 and was replaced in the fourth by sophomore Shawn Patterson. Kody Kibler pitched a scoreless seventh inning for his third save of the season.

Jimmy Spanos and Kyle Hollingsworth each had four total hits in the doubleheader. Hollingsworth went 3-for-3 in the opener and had a pinch-hit double in Game 2. Spanos had two hits in both games.

In this weekend’s series against MU, Spanos was 9-for-16 at the plate with five extra-base hits, two RBIs and six runs scored from the leadoff spot. He struck out just once. Hollingsworth, despite starting in just three of the four games, was 5-for-9 with four RBIs against the Marauders.

MU, the defending Atlantic Regional champions, was swept in a series for the first time since 2010 and has now lost as many games this season as it did all of last year. The Marauders managed just eight hits in 31 at-bats this weekend with runners in scoring position and had just seven RBIs as a team in the four-game set.