SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – The Shippensburg University baseball team continued its hot finish to the season Saturday with a doubleheader sweep of Bloomsburg, 7-0 and 11-4, in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division matchup on Senior Day at Fairchild Field.
 
Shippensburg (25-25, 14-14 PSAC East), which clinched a spot in the PSAC Tournament on Friday, finishes the regular season at the .500 mark for the first time since it was 2-2 through four games. This weekend's four-game sweep of the Huskies was the first by SU this season.
 
The Raiders were buoyed in game one by senior starting pitcher Marcus Shippey, who saved perhaps his best performance of the season for his final career home start. Shippey pitched his second career shutout, and first of this season, limiting Bloomsburg to just five singles across his seven innings of work.
 
Shippey threw 94 pitches, striking out six Bloomsburg hitters and walking none.
 
SU supported Shippey quickly in Game 1, scoring two runs in the first inning on an RBI groundout by sophomore Dalton Hoiles and an RBI single by sophomore Nick Spangler.
 
The game remained close until the fifth inning when SU scored five runs to break open what was a two-run game. Included in the rally was an RBI triple by Hoiles and a two-run double by junior Jake Kennedy.
 
Bloomsburg (23-23, 10-18) scored two runs in the top of the first inning of Game 2, but SU responded quickly with two of its own in the bottom of the first on sacrifice flies by Spangler and senior Austin Allison.
 
The Huskies scored again in the third inning, and again the Raiders had an answer as Allison singled through the right side of the infield on the ninth pitch of his at-bat to score sophomore Grant Hoover.
 
SU took control by scoring two runs in both the fourth and fifth inning, with three of the four runs being unearned to a Bloomsburg staff that used five different pitchers in the Game 2 loss.
 
Allison added to a fine senior day with an RBI single as part of a four-run sixth inning in Game 2. Allison reached base four times in the two games and finished with three RBIs.
 
Fellow senior position player, senior Mike Marcinko, had four hits and three runs scored in the doubleheader.
 
All seven Raider seniors appeared in the doubleheader as senior Kyle McClintock started Game 2, allowing three runs in four innings of work to pick up his third win of the season. Seniors Seth LeFever and Thomas Swartz both threw a scoreless inning in relief of McClintock.
 
The final Raider senior, pitcher Rich Michaud, did not pitch, but instead took his first at-bat of the season, grounding out to the pitcher in the sixth inning in Game 1 – much to the disappointment of the Raider dugout.
 
Hoover continued his hot hitting of late with four hits and four runs scored in the two games. Hoiles had three hits and three RBIs. Spangler drove in three runs in the two games.
 
SU enters the PSAC Tournament as the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Division, meaning that the Raiders' first game will come against Western Division top seed, Mercyhurst. First pitch for the Raiders and Lakers is set for next Sunday, May 8, at 6:30 p.m. at Kelly Automotive Park in Butler, Pa.