JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – The Shippensburg University baseball team built a six-run lead on Mercyhurst through five innings of play Friday and ultimately out-lasted the Lakers, 10-5, in an elimination game of the 2018 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Baseball Championships held at Point Stadium.
 
Shippensburg (28-23) remains alive to face Seton Hill at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday; the Griffins are 2-0 so far in the tournament. Mercyhurst (32-13) now awaits their NCAA Tournament fate on Sunday night.
 
SU's 10 runs are the most allowed by the Lakers in a game this season. The Raiders cranked out 12 hits – five for extra bases – and scored in four different at-bats on the day. Through three games, SU has scored 22 runs in the PSAC Tournament.
 
Senior Andy Crum got the win, allowing five runs (two earned) on eight hits in 6.2 innings. Crum struck out seven and did not walk a batter. For the second straight game, sophomore Jack Jenkens performed admirably out of the bullpen. Jenkens got the final seven outs; he gave up two hits, walked three and struck out three without giving up a run.
 
The Raiders scored in the first inning for the second straight game, taking a 2-0 lead after their first at-bat. With two outs, junior Jack Goertzen snuck a ball between a pair of outfielders to single home junior Cash Gladfelter. Redshirt-junior Drew Bene then followed and ripped a ball over the head of the MU right fielder that went for an RBI-triple.
 
Shippensburg scored four runs in a decisive bottom of the fourth inning to take a 6-1 lead. Bene was hit for the first of two times on the day to start the frame, and senior Grant Hoover then singled. Junior Tommy Baggett sacrificed both men into scoring position.
 
Freshman Scout Knotts came to the plate, and on the first pitch, clobbered a two-run double to left field that plated Hoover and Baggett. Two batters later, with two outs and a full count, Gladfelter pulverized a ball about 395 feet that hit halfway up the right-field wall and ricocheted back toward the field – resulting in a two-run, inside-the-park home run. It was the fourth homer of the year for Gladfelter.
 
In the fifth, Bene delivered a sacrifice fly and Baggett singled up the middle for RBIs that made it 8-2 in SU's favor. Mercyhurst made things interesting in the seventh, taking advantage of an error that prolonged the inning by scoring three runs and bringing the potential tying run to the plate. A Jenkens strikeout ended the inning with the score 8-5 in SU's favor.
 
In the bottom of the seventh, Knotts inside-outted a two-run double to right field with two outs that got the Raiders two more key runs and brought the game to what would be its final 10-5 margin. Six of SU's 10 runs in the game were scored with two outs.
 
Five Raiders finished with multiple hits. Knotts was 2-for-4 with the pair of two-run doubles. Gladfelter finished 2-for-5 with the two-run homer. Senior Nick Spangler was 2-for-5, while Goertzen was 2-for-4 with an RBI, a walk and two runs scored. Hoover was 2-for-3.