Baseball | 5/16/2017 3:00:00 PM

SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – The Shippensburg University baseball team returns to the NCAA Atlantic Regional for the first time since 2013 on Thursday when it opens up national tournament play from Russell Diethrick Park in Jamestown, N.Y.

The Raiders will be the No. 5 seed among the seven teams that qualified for the Atlantic Regional, facing off against Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division foe, No. 4 Millersville, at 7 p.m. Thursday in the final game of the tournament's opening day.
 
The winner of SU (30-22-1, 19-9 PSAC East) and Millersville (32-17, 15-12 PSAC East) will play top-seeded Mercyhurst Friday at 3 p.m. The loser will not play until 3 p.m. Saturday in an elimination game. There will be a live radio broadcast of every SU game, streamed online with links at shipraiders.com. The link for Thursday's game against Millersville can be found above.

The link to live stats is also available above and live updates will be posted on Twitter (@ShipURaiders). The live stats link is the same for each game of the regional and will contain the live stats for SU when the Raiders are playing.

The Raiders have made the Atlantic Regional Tournament three times prior under 11th-year head coach Matt Jones. In two of Jones's three appearances, SU has won the regional and advanced to the College World Series. After losing their opening game in 2013, the Raiders rallied to win four consecutive games, including back-to-back victories over Seton Hill on the final day to win the regional. In 2008, SU beat West Chester 5-4 in the final game of the regional tournament to advance to the College World Series for the first time since 1996.
 
The Raiders enter the tournament as winners of 18 of their last 24 games following a 2-2 showing in the PSAC Tournament. The Raiders beat Slippery Rock twice in the tournament, but fell to Mercyhurst between their two wins and ultimately were eliminated in a wild 7-6 defeat at the hands of Seton Hill - the eventual PSAC champion - in 12 innings.

Millersville, meanwhile, will be playing its first game in 11 days on Thursday after narrowly missing the PSAC Tournament. The Marauders strong out of conference schedule carried them to the No. 4 seed despite losing three of four games to Shippensburg to finish the regular season. The Raiders limited Millersville to just six runs over the four-game series on May 6-7, including just 17 hits for the Marauders.

Millersville is the reigning national runner-up and defending Atlantic Regional Champion after sweeping three games in last year's tournament. This season marks the fifth consecutive season in which the Marauders will be playing in the Atlantic Regional Tournament.

Like the PSAC Tournament, all games in the Atlantic Regional will be nine innings.  SU is 8-6 in games lasting at least nine innings this season.