The Shippensburg University baseball team began its 2021 season Saturday on a cold and windy afternoon in Greensburg, facing a Seton Hill squad that's made nine of the last 10 regional tournaments. The Raiders asserted themselves well against the Griffins but lost 7-3 in Game 1 and 1-0 in Game 2.
 
Shippensburg (0-2), with just two weeks of outdoor practice to its name, did not commit any errors in the doubleheader. Its pitchers walked just five batters over the course of 14 innings.  
 
SU faced two strong Seton Hill (2-0) starters in Jarred Kollar and Ben Vicini. The Raiders managed just nine hits in the doubleheader, striking out 12 times.
 
Graduate Kyle Lysy delivered an excellent performance on the mound in Game 2. Lysy threw five innings, allowing just one run on four hits. He struck out five without walking a batter. Freshman Kaleb Sophy relieved him and struck out the side in the sixth inning around a walk and hit by pitch.
 
Sophomores Tony Vavaroutsos and Lake Lloyd each had two hits on the day. Lloyd had SU's only extra-base hit – a solo home run in the seventh inning of Game 1.
 
Game 1
 
Seton Hill used a five-run second inning to tilt the tide in the opener. An RBI-single and an RBI-groundout made it 2-0, but with two outs, the Griffins pushed three more runs across the plate.
 
Redshirt-sophomore Kiernan Higgins, the Game 1 starter, put up zeroes in the first, third and fourth before exiting. He allowed five hits and three walks with one strikeout over his four innings of work.
 
Freshman Gabe Stotler threw two innings in relief. He was touched up for two runs in the fifth on a solo home run and RBI-single.
 
Trailing 7-0 entering its final at-bat, Shippensburg plated three runs in the top of the seventh and got the tying run to the on-deck circle in the frame. Lloyd led off with his solo home run, and the Raiders then loaded the bases on two singles and a walk. Vavaroutsos hit into a fielder's choice to plate Andres Garcia, and graduate JuJu Cason blooped a single into left field to score freshman Morgan Wyatt. A popup and strikeout ended the game.
 
Game 2
 
The lone run in the game was a solo home run by Tommy Pellis with one out in the bottom of the first inning. It was Pellis's 15th homer as a Griffin. Lysy retired nine of the final 10 batters he faced, and only allowed one runner to reach second base after the first inning.
 
SU's two hits were singles – one by Vavaroutsos and one by junior Chase Zurawski.
 
Up Next
 
Shippensburg opens the PSAC East schedule at noon Friday when it hosts nationally-ranked East Stroudsburg at Fairchild Field.