SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – The Shippensburg University baseball team went back and forth with Seton Hill repeatedly Tuesday before ultimately falling 14-12 to the Griffins in 10 innings in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) crossover matchup at a windy Fairchild Field.
 
SU (25-19-1) broke out offensively with 15 hits, including six of which went for extra bases. The teams combined for 33 hits on a day where the wind howled out to left field, which potentially helped push four home runs out of Fairchild Field – all of which sailed over the left field fence.
 
Leading the way for SU was junior Dalton Hoiles, who went 4-for-5 with a home run and two doubles while driving in three runs. Senior Jake Kennedy finished 3-for-4 with a solo homer – his PSAC-leading 19th of the season – while scoring five runs.
 
Senior Ryan McMillen and sophomore Jack Goertzen also had three hits as Goertzten drove in three runs.
 
The Raiders grabbed a 3-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI triple by junior Nick Spangler, an RBI ground out by sophomore Cash Gladfelter and an RBI single by Goertzen.
 
Seton Hill (31-15) scored a pair of runs in the second and third innings respectively to take a 4-3 lead before Kennedy's long ball tied the game 4-4 in the third inning. SHU responded quickly with two more runs in the fourth, but RBI hits by Hoiles and Goertzen in the fifth inning tied the game at 6-6.
 
Freshman Jacob Menders got the start, striking out six in four innings of work while allowing four earned runs. Junior Andy Crum threw a game-high 87 pitches as he worked five innings for SU, picking up the tough-luck loss. 
 
Seton Hill again held the lead briefly in the seventh when the Griffins scored a run in the top of the inning, but Hoiles's two-run laser over the left field wall put SU up 8-7 in the bottom half. McMillen added an RBI single later in the inning to put SU up a by two runs.
 
This time Seton Hill had the answer in the top of the eighth with a three-run homer to left field that put the Griffins up 10-9. A bloop RBI single to right field in the bottom of the eighth by Hoiles tied the game at 10-10 before SU got a Goertzen RBI single and a sacrifice fly off the bat of junior Grant Hoover.
 
However, the wind came back to bite SU most in the top of the ninth when Seton Hill's Mark Colella skied a fly ball to left that looked rather routine off the bat, but ended up over the fence as a two-run home run to tie the game. The Griffins took the lead for good with two runs in the top of the 10th inning.
 
Crum finished with three strikeouts and eight groundball outs over his five innings of work. Sophomore Tyler Butcher finished the 10th inning for SU, allowing one run on two hits.
 
SU is scheduled to play again Friday at Millersville in a PSAC East doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.