The Shippensburg University baseball team dropped a pair of non-conference road games at Pitt-Johnstown on Friday, falling 7-4 and 4-3 to the Mountain Cats in games played on a sunny and pleasant afternoon at Point Stadium.
 
Shippensburg (5-9) finished the day with 13 hits. The Raiders also drew eight walks in Game 2 after not walking at all in Game 1.
 
Pitt-Johnstown (11-4) totaled 14 hits, and made the most of the fourth inning in each game. The Mountain Cats scored four runs in the fourth inning of both games, and ultimately staved off the Raiders for the remainder of each contest.
 
Senior Tommy Baggett and freshman Anthony Vavaroutsos hit solo home runs in Game 1, while freshman Justin Darden and sophomore Logan Williamson delivered RBI-singles.
 
In Game 2, Shippensburg trailed 4-0 entering its final at-bat but rallied for three runs, getting the potential tying run into scoring position before the game ended. SU scored its runs on a wild pitch, an RBI-single by senior Jack Goertzen and an RBI-double by Vavaroutsos.
 
Overall on the day, Baggett reached base five times – going 3-for-5 with two walks and a stolen base. Sophomore Chase Zurawski was 2-for-5 with a walk and two runs. Vavaroutsos and junior Zack Zoller each finished with two hits.
 
On the mound, senior Zack Sims and sophomore Dalton Oates got the starts. Sims struck out seven in his four innings of work but yielded six runs on six hits. Oates threw a complete game in the nightcap; he allowed five hits, struck out six and did not walk a batter. All four runs he allowed were unearned, as UPJ's first two batters of the fourth inning reached via errors.
 
UP NEXT: Saturday, 1 p.m. vs. Pitt-Johnstown (DH) (Home Opener)