Game 1
Game 2

CLARION, Pa. - Shippensburg University baseball head coach Matt Jones won his 200th career game while senior Brandon Geib picked up his second shutout victory of the week as the Red Raiders tied a season-high with their eighth-straight victory, sweeping a doubleheader at Clarion on Sunday, 13-5 and 8-1.

Shippensburg (24-13, 6-2 PSAC West) also won its sixth consecutive PSAC Western Division game, moving the team into a first-place tie atop the PSAC Western Division standings with Indiana (Pa.). The Crimson Hawks are also 6-2 in conference following Sunday's doubleheader sweep at Lock Haven.

Both teams, who are one-game ahead of California (Pa.) and two in front of Slippery Rock, face off this weekend in a four-game series with the first two games at Fairchild Field on Friday.

Jones has now won 200 games in eight-plus seasons as a college head coach and owns a career record of 200-163-2 which includes a mark of 52-37 in his second year at Shippensburg. He has won four conference championships, three at Elizabethtown from 2000-06 and the 2007 PSAC championship in his first season with the Red Raiders.

Also on Sunday, junior Kyle Rhoades extended his hitting streak to 15 games, just one behind senior Justin Garber's season-best 16-game hitting streak and seven behind the school record of 22 set by Chad Stecker '05 during the 2005 season.

During his current streak, Rhoades is batting .446 with 25 hits, four doubles, 10 RBIs and a .518 on-base percentage. He also drawn eight walks and his 25 hits are second-most on the team during that time behind junior Tyler Redick who has totaled 27.

In game one on Sunday, Geib picked up his third win in his last three starts, all of which have been complete game efforts. He allowed 11 hits over seven innings, but limited the Golden Eagles (7-11, 1-7 PSAC West) to five runs, three of which came in the first two innings.

Geib has held opponents to just five runs in his last three starts, running his scoreless streak to 14.2 innings before Clarion's Jake Yackovich RBI-single to right with two outs in the bottom of the first.

The Golden Eagles' three runs in the first two innings were of little concern to Geib or the Red Raiders who scored six during their first two at-bats and led 7-3 after four innings.

Clarion added one more run in the bottom of the fifth, but Shippensburg plated five in the sixth to put the game out of reach.

Sophomore Kevin Scholly drove in two of Shippensburg's four first inning runs with a single to right while sophomore Ashton Taughinbaugh, making just his second start and ninth appearance of the season, drove in the last two with two-run single to right with two outs.

Taughinbaugh would also get the start at designated hitter in game two and finished the day 3-for-4 with four RBIs. In 10 games this season, he is batting .429 with six hits and seven RBIs in 14 at-bats.

Taughinbaugh went 2-for-3 with three RBIs in game one while Scholly was 2-for-4 with three RBIs. Redick, sophomore Rick Shumway and freshman Kris Kullman each totaled three hits with Shumway adding three runs and two RBIs.

Shippensburg received another strong pitching performance in game two as junior Jason Kelly allowed just one run on five hits over six innings while striking out five to pick up his fourth win of the season in just his second start.

In his first start of the season at Shepherd on March 25, Kelly earned the win after tossing 5.1 innings in a 15-12 victory. He allowed 10 hits and five earned runs before leaving the game with Shippensburg leading 14-5.

The Red Raiders scored five runs in the second and one in the top of the third to take a 6-0 lead. In the second, Shippensburg plated five runs on just one hit while taking advantage of one Clarion error.

The first run came on a bases loaded walk by junior Sean Killian before senior Eric Dezell hit an RBI-single, junior Kasey Kuhns scored on a passed ball, Garber had an RBI-ground out and Rhoades hit a sacrifice fly.

Killian finished the second game with the rare line of 0-for-1 with three RBIs. In addition to a bases loaded walk, he hit a sacrifice fly in the third and another one in the fifth. Redick was 2-for-2 and Dezell went 2-for-3 with a run and one RBI.

Shippensburg will host Shepherd in a nine-inning, non-conference game at Fairchild Field on Tuesday beginning at 3:00 p.m.