JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – The Shippensburg University baseball team raced out to an 8-0 lead Thursday in a 2018 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Baseball Championships elimination game with Gannon and rode the strong starting pitching of senior Gabe Mosser to defeat the Golden Knights, 8-2, in action held from Point Stadium.
 
Shippensburg (27-23) advances to face either Millersville or Mercyhurst in an elimination game Friday at approximately 4 PM, while Gannon (31-18) was eliminated with the loss. The Golden Knights are among the many teams who remain in consideration for a regional tournament bid.
 
Thursday's game was delayed shortly before its scheduled 1:20 start due to lightning in the area. It started closer to 2:20 p.m., and the teams played into the bottom of the third inning before a second weather delay halted play for nearly two hours after a thunderstorm rolled through. It ended around 6:15 p.m.
 
Mosser lasted into the eighth inning, a frame in which he pitched to the leadoff batter before being removed. He threw seven innings, scattering three runs on six hits while striking out seven to improve his season record to 8-4. Sophomore Jack Jenkens got the final six outs, allowing a run on three hits.
 
SU took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning after its first four hitters reached base. Singles by junior Cash Gladfelter and senior Nick Spangler preceded an RBI-single by senior Dalton Hoiles, who finished the day 3-for-4 at the plate with two RBIs.
 
Junior Jack Goertzen then drew a four-pitch walk, and two batters later, senior Grant Hoover plated a run on an RBI-groundout.
 
Sophomore Jacob Pollock led off the fourth with a double off the brick wall in left-center field. Gladfelter walked, and Spangler sacrificed both runners into scoring position. Hoiles then doubled both men home to make it 4-0 in SU's favor.
 
The Raiders broke the game open in the fifth with four runs to take an 8-0 lead. Hoover began the inning with a ball hit into right field that appeared to be caught but was ruled to have been dropped on a transfer from the glove. The play resulted in Hoover ending up on second base and the Gannon manager being ejected.
 
Two pitches after Hoover reached second base, junior Tommy Baggett lammed a single up the middle to make it 5-0. A Pollock single prefaced a sacrifice fly by Gladfelter that made it 6-0. Spangler singled, and then Hoiles singled home Pollock. Spangler eventually came around to score in the inning on a wild pitch.
 
Mosser concluded five of his seven innings with strikeouts – the second, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh. Thirteen of his 21 outs were either strikeouts or groundouts. Gannon scored its lone runs in the final two innings, one each in the eighth and ninth.
 
Pollock and Hoiles lead the Raiders through two tournament games in having reached base six times. On Friday, Pollock was 2-for-4 with a double, walk and two runs. Spangler was 2-for-4 with two runs, while Baggett was 2-for-5. Eight of the nine Raider starters had at least one hit.
 
Hoiles has now tied the SU single-season record for doubles with 22 – one more gives him sole possession of the school record. He is also now just two doubles shy of tying SU's career doubles record of 57 set by Cody Kulp. Hoiles is also just four RBIs shy of tying the SU career record of 156 set by Matt DeSanto (2000-03).