SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – The Shippensburg University baseball team scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday, but came up just short in an 8-7 loss to Le Moyne on a sunny afternoon at Fairchild Field.
Shippensburg (5-8) entered its final at-bat trailing 8-3, but started the bottom of the ninth inning by loading the bases with nobody out. Sophomore
Dalton Hoiles then unloaded the bases with a three-run double on a fly ball that one-hopped the left field fence and also forced a Le Moyne pitching change.
The Dolphins' (8-4) brought in Dylan Swetman from shortstop and he was greeted by a long fly ball off the bat of freshman
Jack Goertzen. Unfortunately for SU, Goertzten hit it to the deepest part of the park – right-center field – and he was limited to a long RBI double, cutting the Raider deficit to one.
Junior
Ryan McMillen then walked to put runners on first and second while there were still no outs recorded. However, Swetman was able to bear down by striking out back-to-back batters before throwing a wild pitch that allowed Goertzen and McMillen to advance to second and third, respectively. Swetman was able to end the game by inducing a pop out to shortstop.
Le Moyne created its five-run lead by scoring two runs in the seventh inning to snap a 3-3 tie before adding three more tallies in the eighth inning.
SU took its first lead of the day when sophomore
Nick Spangler hit a two-run double to right-center field to make it 2-1, Raiders, in the second inning.
The Dolphins scored two runs in the top of the third off Shippensburg starter, senior
Rich Michaud, to take a 3-2 lead. The Raiders tied things up in the bottom of the third using senior
Mike Marcinko's wheels.
The speedy shortstop scored on a sacrifice fly by senior
Austin Allison – a popup that barely left the infield. Marcinko was 2-for-5 with a double and two runs scored.
Michaud threw five innings, allowing just three runs on three hits. The righty struck out four before giving way to sophomore
Gabe Mosser in a tie game in the sixth inning. Mosser pitched a 1-2-3 sixth before allowing a solo homer to start the seventh. He allowed two runs in two innings.
Freshman
Zack Sims, redshirt-freshman
Tyler Butcher and senior
Seth LeFever combined to throw the last two innings for SU. Lefever pitched 1.1 innings without allowing a run or hit.
Goertzen, McMillen and sophomore
Grant Hoover all had two hits for the Raiders. McMillen reached four times on the day as he walked and was one of three Raiders that were hit by a pitch (Hoiles and Goertzen).
The Raiders are back in action on Friday when they will play a doubleheader at PSAC West foe, Pitt-Johnstown, beginning at 1 p.m.
