Senior
Jake Kennedy broke the single-season records for home runs and RBIs on Sunday in the regular-season finale, as the Shippensburg University baseball team split a pair of Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division games at No. 17 Millersville. The Marauders won the opener, 1-0, before the Raiders countered with a 6-4 victory in Game 2.
Shippensburg (28-20-1, 19-9 PSAC East) enters the 2017 PSAC Baseball Championships as the Eastern Division's No. 2 seed; its 19-9 divisional record is its best in PSAC Eastern Division play under 11th-year head coach
Matt Jones. The Raiders did not lose any of their Eastern Division series: sweeping two, winning one and splitting four.
SU will play at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday against Slippery Rock in Game 1 of the 2017 PSAC Baseball Championships. The PSAC office announced that Slippery Rock and Gannon will not resume a halted game that could have provided an opportunity for The Rock to climb into the West's No. 2 seed.
The first-round opponent for the Raiders is still to be determined. Slippery Rock (26-18, 17-10 PSAC West) will have to make up a halted game with Gannon (20-24, 10-16) to determine the Western Division's No. 2 and No. 3 seeds. If The Rock wins at Gannon on Monday, it will get the No. 2 seed and face Eastern Division No. 3 Lock Haven. A Rock loss would give the West No. 2 seed to IUP. SU will, as a result, face either SRU or IUP in the opening round at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Millersville (32-17, 15-13 PSAC East) now awaits its PSAC Tournament fate, as the loss in the nightcap and just one win in the series opens up an opportunity for East Stroudsburg (24-19-1, 13-12-1) to claim the East No. 4 seed if it sweeps a Monday doubleheader at Mansfield. The two teams were scheduled to play Sunday in Mansfield, but that didn't happen.
Kennedy hit a go-ahead, three-run home run on the first pitch offered by Marauder reliever Mike Mock in the fifth inning, and later launched a solo home run in the top of the seventh inning off Marauder reliever Dylan Boisclair. He was 2-for-2 in Game 2 with the two home runs plus a pair of walks.
For the season, Kennedy has 21 home runs and 65 RBIs. He had already equaled his own single-season home run record (19), but distanced himself from himself with Sunday's round trippers. The former single-season RBI record (61) had been shared by Wayne Gordon (1986) and Scott Rhodes (1991).
Kennedy has also tied the official PSAC record for career home runs (44), held by Kutztown's Shayne Houck (2009-12). His 21 home runs this season are the fourth-most in PSAC single-season history.
The Marauders took a 3-0 lead in the second inning, benefiting from a pair of walks and a single by hitting two bases-loaded singles and a sacrifice fly. In the third, the Marauders put runners on second and third with one out to chase junior
Grant Hoover.
Undaunted, freshman
Jacob Menders induced a groundout and froze Cole Friese to escape the jam and precede a two-run top of the fourth for the Raiders.
A seven-pitch walk to Kennedy and a single by junior
Dalton Hoiles led to a sacrifice bunt by sophomore
Jack Goertzen, and sophomore
Drew Bene capitalized with a two-run single that chased MU starter Bobby Dorta.
The decisive fifth featured back-to-back walks to junior
Nick Spangler and sophomore
Cash Gladfelter that led to Millersville replacing reliever Matt Ulrich with Mock. Kennedy launched the first pitch he saw from Mock over the fence to give SU the lead.
Menders' excellent relief work resulted in his third victory of the season. After escaping the third-inning jam, he pitched through the sixth – working 3.2 innings and allowing just one run on three hits while striking out two. Sophomore
Michael Hope made his first relief appearance in 19 days and notched his fifth save, hitting a batter with two outs in an otherwise unblemished bottom of the seventh inning.
Shippensburg dropped the opener, 1-0, in a game that had just five combined hits. Redshirt-freshman
Zack Sims was the hard-luck loser, throwing a 73-pitch complete game and allowing a run on two hits while striking out three. Two of his three walks came in the sixth inning, a frame in which MU hit a sacrifice fly for the game's lone run.
More information about the 2017 PSAC Baseball Championships will be available this week at shipraiders.com.
