SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – The Shippensburg University baseball team dropped a pair of one-run games to visiting Le Moyne on Sunday afternoon, with the visiting Dolphins winning by scores of 4-3 and 2-1 in action at a windy Fairchild Field.
 
Shippensburg (5-12) and Le Moyne (5-7) virtually mirrored each other in production, as each team had the same amount of hits (13), doubles (4), RBIs (4), and even assists (17) and putouts (42). The Dolphins, however, had a few extra baserunners, collecting five walks and six hit-by-pitches compared to three walks and one hit batter for the Raiders.
 
Graduate Matt Shilling went 4-for-5 in the doubleheader and reached base five times – he had a double, walk, three RBIs and a run scored. Shilling finished the weekend 6-for-13 in the four-game series with two doubles and six RBIs.
 
Graduate JuJu Cason had three hits, including a double, and a stolen base.
 
Le Moyne got complete-game victories from a pair of Jacobs – Jacob Marshall in Game 1 and Jacob Maser in Game 2.  
 
Shippensburg will open the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division schedule at 2 p.m. Friday when it hosts Bloomsburg at Fairchild Field.
 
Game 1: Le Moyne 4, Shippensburg 3
 
The Raiders started strong, as a two-run single up the middle by Shilling gave the Raiders a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Cason led off the game with a single and stole second before senior Ben Werkheiser walked. Both men scored on the Shilling single.
 
Le Moyne countered with three runs in the second off sophomore Kaleb Sophy. A hit batter, a double, a wild pitch and another double made it 2-2. An error on a failed pickoff attempt in a rundown made it 3-2, with Sophy escaping further damage by recording back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning.
 
SU equaled the score in the third inning with a leadoff double by Werkheiser, who scored two batters later on an RBI-double by Shilling. Le Moyne's Marshall stranded a runner on third with one out by inducing a comebacker and a groundout to end the inning.
 
Le Moyne hit an RBI-single in the fifth to take a 4-3 lead. Cason doubled to lead off the bottom of the seventh but the Raiders could not bring him home to tie the score.
 
Marshall allowed three runs on six hits for the Dolphin win, walking three and striking out 10. Sophy took the loss, allowing four runs (three earned) on seven hits, walking three and striking out six in six innings. Sophomore Ethan Miller struck out two in a scoreless seventh.
 
Game 2: Le Moyne 2, Shippensburg 1
 
Junior Noah Nabholz got the start and threw three innings, allowing a run on two hits with a walk, three hit batters and four strikeouts. He had to work out of jams in each inning; stranding a leadoff double in the first and stranding two runners who were hit by a pitch in the third.
 
In the second, Le Moyne took a 1-0 lead after Mike Smith drew a one-out walk, advanced two bases on separate wild pitches, and scored on a two-out single by Brady Fureno that came on a nine-pitch at bat.
 
The Raiders evened the score in the bottom of the fourth when sophomore Andrew Chronister hit a one-out double into the left-center field gap that scored Shilling.
 
Sophomore Jackson LoBianco pitched the middle innings, allowing a run on two hits with a walk, two hit batters and a strikeout. The Dolphins took the lead in the fifth on a sacrifice fly, as a nifty diving catch by Cason with one out saved a likely double.
 
SU could not scratch the tying run across in its final three at-bats, managing just one base runner on a hit by pitch.
 
Sophomore Joe Barbera, who got the Game 2 start at second base, was 2-for-3 with two stolen bases.
 
Maser got the win for Le Moyne, allowing a run on seven hits while walking none and striking out nine in a 92-pitch complete game.
 
Redshirt-freshman Cameron Goble pitched the final two innings for the Raiders, allowing a lone single and striking out three.