Freshman Gabe Stotler threw a two-hit shutout in his first collegiate start Saturday as the Shippensburg University baseball team salvaged a split at No. 38 East Stroudsburg with a 1-0 Game 2 victory. ESU took the opener, 8-1, and finished the weekend winning 3-of-4 games in the series.
 
Stotler recorded Shippensburg's first shutout of East Stroudsburg since Zack Sims threw a four-hitter on April 27, 2018. It's the first time the Raiders have shutout the Warriors at East Stroudsburg since shifting to the Eastern Division in 2009. SU's last shutout at East Stroudsburg occurred on April 27, 2002 in a three-hitter by Lee McClintock.
 
Shippensburg (1-5, 1-3 PSAC East) managed just two runs on 10 hits at the plate in Saturday's doubleheader but only allowed six hits to East Stroudsburg (4-3, 3-1). Neither team had an extra-base hit in the doubleheader.
 
Game 1
East Stroudsburg plated eight runs but only had four hits, as the Warriors benefited from nine walks, three hit batters and a couple of key Raider errors in the opener.
 
Shippensburg scored in the top of the first on an RBI-single by junior Ben Werkheiser. A one-out single by junior Chase Zurawski and a walk by sophomore Lake Lloyd prefaced the RBI-single.
 
ESU answered with three in the second, with runs scoring on a fielder's choice, single and groundout. Two more Warriors touched home plate in the fourth after a bases-loaded walk and a throwing error. A bases-loaded hit batter and a two-run single in the fifth resulted in the 8-1 score that would be the game's final margin.
 
Freshman Kaleb Sophy threw 4.1 innings, allowing four earned runs on three hits but walked eight. Fellow freshman Ethan Miller got five outs and did not allow a run in relief, yielding just one hit and one walk while striking out one.
 
SU got singles from seven batters and drew four walks but stranded 11 runners on base. ESU stranded nine runners.
 
The ESU pitchers struck out 13 Raiders. Brent Francisco got the win, allowing a run on four hits over four innings while striking out seven.
 
Game 2
 
Stotler needed just 73 pitches to record a complete-game shutout, striking out five and not walking a batter. No opposing batters finished a play past first base. Stotler retired the final six batters he faced, and the lone blemishes against him were a two-out single in the first by Brock Kauffman and a one-out single in the fifth by Ben Piripavel.
 
The lone run of the game came in the fourth inning. A leadoff walk by Lloyd prefaced a single by Zurawski, putting runners on the corners. Sophomore Justin Darden then delivered a sacrifice fly, making it 1-0.
 
Freshman Jackson LoBianco singled with one out in the fifth before the final eight Raiders were retired in succession.
 
ESU starter Connor Johnson allowed a run on three hits over five innings, walking two and striking out eight.
 
Up Next
Shippensburg starts its second divisional series at 1 p.m. Friday with a doubleheader at Shepherd.