Box Score

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. - After battling back from a 7-0 deficit to tie the game at 8-8, the Shippensburg University baseball team was edged by West Chester Sunday afternoon, 12-10, in the first of two NCAA Division II North Atlantic Region Championship title games at Point Stadium.

The last unbeaten team in the regional, the Red Raiders (37-24) need to win just one game to advance to their first NCAA Division II Baseball Championship since 1996 while the Golden Rams needed two victories to advance to their second national championship tournament in the last three years.

Freshman Shane Barrett got his second start of the season and was hit for seven runs in two-thirds of an inning before freshman Matt Emerich came in and threw four innings of scoreless relief before allowing a run in the sixth and two in the seventh.

After Shippensburg tied the game at 8-8 after six, West Chester took a two-run lead in the seventh on solo home runs by Matt Cotellese and Bob Stumpo.

The Red Raiders pulled within one, 10-9, after a sacrifice fly by senior Justin Garber that scored junior Sean Killian, but the Golden Rams (45-15) plated two in the top of the ninth on RBI hits by Drew Pare and Frank Nunan.

Killian had a two-out, RBI-single in the bottom of the ninth, but West Chester's Eric Carmichael picked up his 11th save of the season after getting senior Eric Dezell to strike out with runners on first and third, ending the Shippensburg threat.

Garber finished the game 3-for-3 with five RBIs while Killian was 3-for-4 with two RBIs.

A winner take all regional championship game will start at approximately 3:00 p.m. Live stats can be accessed here.