MANSFIELD, Pa. – The Shippensburg University baseball team got complete-game shutouts from senior
Andy Crum and junior
Michael Hope on Saturday afternoon to complete a four-game series sweep over Mansfield in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division play from Shaute Field.
Shippensburg (20-17, 10-10 PSAC East) shutout Mansfield (9-24, 3-16) over the final 20 innings of play in their four-game series. SU struck out 33 Mountaineer hitters on the weekend.
Crum needed just 80 pitches in his outing to secure the shutout win. Crum gave up just three hits in the game while fanning seven Mounties.
Hope threw 100 pitches to secure the back-to-back shutout efforts. It was Hope's second career start and his first conference start in his career. The junior surrendered five hits while striking out five.
The last time the Raiders shutout a conference opponent in a doubleheader was last season at Kutztown.
Junior
Tommy Baggett continued to swing a hot bat, going 3-for-7 on the day with a home run, double and two RBIs. Baggett finished the series 8-for-16 with and tied for the team high in RBIs with seven.
Seniors
Dalton Hoiles and
Nick Spangler each finished the day 3-for-8. Hoiles doubled twice while Spangler doubled once with one RBI. Hoiles led the team in hitting over the four game series, hitting .538 with seven hits, one home run, two doubles and eight runs scored. The centerfield reached base at a .625 clip.
Senior
Grant Hoover and junior
Cash Gladfelter each went 2-for-6 in today's doubleheader. Hoover doubled and scored twice while Gladfelter scored once.
Shippensburg will return to action Tuesday at 1:30 pm when it will host IUP in a PSAC crossover doubleheader.
Game 1
Shippensburg jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a sacrifice fly from junior catcher
Drew Bene that scored Gladflelter.
Baggett homered in the second inning to dead center field to put SU up 2-0. Crum was able to keep the Mansfield bats quiet to allow SU to break the game open in the sixth.
The Raiders scored three runs in the sixth and two in the seventh put the game away. Crum finished with two scoreless frames in the sixth and seventh to complete the shutout and earn his third win of the season in the 7-0 Shippensburg win.
Game 2
Hope continued to throw zeroes on the scoreboard for SU, and got some highlight-reel defense behind him. In the bottom of the fourth, with the go-ahead run on second and two outs in the frame, Mansfield's Brady Mengel appeared to have broken the scoreless tie with a single up the middle.
However, Gladflelter made a diving play up the middle and fired a one-hop throw to Baggett who dug the throw out and kept the Mounties off the board.
SU used that momentum in the top of the fifth to capture the lead on a RBI-single by Spangler that scored Hoover. Hope kept Mansfield off the board over the next three innings to secure the four-game sweep with a 1-0 SU win.