The Shippensburg University baseball team swept a four-game series against Mansfield University over the weekend.

SU played the first two games on Friday on Mansfield’s campus, but the teams came back to Fairchild Field at Shippensburg for Alumni Day on Saturday. Both games on Friday were tightly contested until the last couple innings when the Raiders took the advantage.

In the first game, the score was tied at three going into the top half of the ninth, but the Raiders scored nine runs in the inning to win the game 9–3. The second game was much closer, with the Raiders being down one going into the sixth, only for the offense to score one in the sixth and one in the seventh to earn the win.

SU had multiple players with impressive games on Friday, including Ryan McMillen and Drew Bene. McMillen went 5-for-7 with three RBIs and Bene was 4-for-9 with three RBIs, which all came from a three-run homer in the ninth to really seal the victory for SU. Nick Spangler was also efficient at the plate, going 5-for-8 with two more RBIs.

Both starting pitchers for SU earned the wins after strong performances. Gabe Mosser took the first game after only giving up three runs in eight innings and throwing nine strikeouts. It was Mosser’s fourth consecutive win in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) match-ups. Jacob Menders took Game 2 behind three strikeouts and only three runs on five hits in six innings of work.

The Raiders were tied in the seventh inning of Game 2, but Jack Goertzen stepped up to the plate and delivered a solo home run on a 3–1 count to give Shippensburg the lead. Michael Hope pitched the bottom of the inning to earn his third save of the season and his second of the day.

Saturday brought more of the same for the Raiders, with the team picking up two more wins, including a blowout 22–7 victory in the second game of the day. McMillen and Spangler once again performed well at the plate, with McMillen falling just a triple short of the cycle in Game 2. The team had 17 hits in that game leading to 22 runs.

Jake Kennedy added to his school-record number of home runs with his 15th of the season in Game 2 on Saturday. He went 2-for-3 in Game 2 with three RBIs, which came from his latest homer.

The Raiders needed late-game heroics once again in the first game of the day, scoring one run off the bat of Spangler and scoring another from a throwing error. Hope stepped up to the mound for the seventh again, and earned his third save in two days with a clean inning. Mark Curtis started the game for the Raiders and earned his third win of the season behind six innings of three-hit ball and three strikeouts.

The runs came early and often for the Raiders in Game 2, with the team scoring four runs in the first and then eight in the second. Eleven Raiders had at least one hit in the game and five had multi-hit games. Grant Hoover started the game and earned his second win of the year, only surrendering six hits and two runs over four innings.

The sweep saw the Raiders improve their record to 17-16-1 for the season. SU will face Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) on the road today in a PSAC doubleheader.

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