The Shippensburg University baseball team welcomed the No. 4 Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) team to SU this weekend for its home opener, splitting the series to get its first wins of the season.
There were four games spread across three days, with a doubleheader on Sunday afternoon. The Raiders took the first two games on Friday and Saturday, winning 12–4 and 19–18, respectively. They dropped both games of the Sunday doubleheader, 9–3 and 6–1.
Game 1
It was a freezing, snowy start to the game Friday afternoon, but that did not slow down the Raiders’ bats. SU scored three runs in the first inning and then three more in the second. Senior Jake Kennedy started the scoring with a two-run home run for his fourth homer of the season.
The game was delayed twice because of snowfall, including once during the second inning. Immediately after play resumed, junior Dalton Hoiles hit a two-run single to extend the Raiders’ early on. He went 2-for-3 on the day with three RBIs.
The game was quiet until the fifth inning, excluding a run scored by the Penmen in the third. The Raiders scored two more runs in the fifth, including a solo home run by sophomore Jack Goertzen, to make it an 8–1 game.
Senior Ryan McMillen went 4-for-6 on the day with two stolen bases and three RBIs, including a home run in the seventh inning. It was his second home run of the season.
Pitcher Zack Sims kept the Penmen quiet all afternoon, only giving up five hits and one run while striking out eight, a career-best.
Game 2
It was another cold and windy day at Fairchild Field for what turned out to be a thrilling game which saw the Raiders come away with a 19–18 win in extra innings.
There were a combined 40 hits and 37 runs in the game, which lasted more than four hours.
Hoiles had another impressive game, going 4-for-7 with one home run and five RBIs to give him eight RBIs in two days. Goertzen also had a good day and reached base six times, going 3-for-4 with two RBIs and walked three times.
Both teams started hot in the first inning, with the Penmen getting three runs immediately and then the Raiders taking the lead in the bottom of the inning with four runs. It was a back-and-forth affair all day. Whenever one team would take the lead, the other team would almost immediately come back and either tie the game or take back the lead.
SU scored five runs in the sixth inning, only for SNHU to come right back in the seventh and score seven runs to take the lead again. It was 17–11 at that point. The Raiders then scored four runs in the bottom of that inning to narrow the gap. The Penmen scored one more run in the eighth and the Raiders scored three to tie the game up.
No team scored in the ninth, so the game had to go to extra innings.
Junior Grant Hoover pitched a scoreless 10th inning to set up the possibility of a walk-off victory for the Raiders. It was none other than Hoover who stepped up to the plate with runners on first and second with two outs. He delivered a single up the middle of the field to score the runner on second and gave SU the win by a score of 19–18.
Game 3
After a good start to the weekend, the Raiders dropped both games on Sunday against the Penmen.
After scoring 31 runs in the first two games, they were only able to manage four runs in the doubleheader while giving up 15.
The Raiders were down 6–0 in the fifth inning of the opening game before being able to bring in some runs. Hoover again started the action, hitting a single to score SU’s first run of the day. Two more runs came in later in the inning on a single and a groundout to make it 6–3 with two innings to go.
That was as close as the team would come to catching up with SNHU, as the Penmen added three more runs in the sixth and seventh to ensure their first win of the weekend.
Game 4
The final game of the weekend series would not go any better for the Raiders. They were only able to rack up five hits in the effort, only scoring one run. The Penmen’s pitcher dominated SU all game and posted a complete game.
The only Raider to have more than one hit was Hoover, who had two hits and scored the only run for the team. The game ended with a score of 6–1.
Another problem for the Raiders in the final game was errors. The team had four errors in the game, which led to unearned runs.
A positive from the weekend was the team picked up its first wins of the season, and they came against a nationally ranked team in SNHU. Shippensburg is now 2–8 on the season.
The next action for the Raiders will come Friday as they welcome LeMoyne University to Fairchild Field for another weekend series.
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