The Shippensburg University baseball team battled back and forth with perennial 30-win powerhouse Catawba through six innings before falling in its season opener on a cold and windy Friday in Salisbury, N.C., 10-3.
 
Shippensburg (0-1) took the lead twice in the early going and tied the score in the sixth behind a strong opening day start from graduate Noah Nabholz and a two-hit day from junior backstop Andrew Chronister, but a five-spot surrendered by the SU bullpen in the bottom of the seventh was the Raiders' undoing.
 
Catawba (1-0) pounded out 10 runs on 17 hits in the victory. The top two hitters in the Catawba batting order, Bryson Copper (3-for-5, 2 runs scored) and Dylan Driver (4-for-5, 3 runs), combined for a 7-for-10 day at the dish with five runs scored.
 
Nabholz walked a tight rope at times but was able to keep the Catawba bats in check over six solid frames. The SU ace scattered eight hits, fanned four and allowed four runs (two earned) on 90 pitches.
 
The Raider bats staked Nabholz to a lead before he even took the mound. Junior Joe Barbera and Chronister met Catawba starter Austin Fine with back-to-back one-out singles in the first, and graduate Justin Byler put the ball in play to drive in Barbera for the game's first run.
 
Nabholz got some help from his defense to wiggle his way out of a rocky home half, with Chronister and sophomore shortstop Carter Hinds combining to catch a Catawba baserunner attempting to swipe home to preserve the Raider lead.
 
Nabholz was able to limit the damage again an inning later, rolling a key double play ball to get out of a bases- loaded, no-out situation with only giving up a single run.
 
SU rallied to take the lead again in the third. Sophomore Jaxon Dalena led off the top half of the frame with a double down the right-field line. Chronister and Byler also reached, loading the bases for junior Morgan Wyatt.
 
With one out, the Ship DH delivered a fly ball to left that was deep enough to drive in Dalena to give the Raiders a 2-1 edge.
 
The top of the Catawba order greeted Nabholz with back-to-back baserunners once again in the bottom of the frame. With runners on second and third, the Ship righty got the next two hitters on strikes, only for Catawba's Cole Hales to deliver a two-out, two-run single to left center that staked the hosts to a 3-2 lead.
 
Both starters settled down to toss zeros in the next two frames. However, Chronister stayed hot at the plate, greeting Fine with a double to start the sixth, then crossing home plate on a single from Byler to knot the game at 3-3.
 
Catawba then manufactured an unearned run off Nabholz in the sixth, and the game got away from the Raiders when Nabholz was lifted from the game to start the home half of the seventh. Catawba hitters put up five runs on seven hits in the inning against two Raider relievers.
 
Fine, the winning pitcher, was charged with three runs on five hits over six frames. He struck out four and walked one. Reliever Mason Gwyn tossed three scoreless to pick up the save.
 
The Raiders return to action tomorrow for game two of the three game set against Catawba. First pitch is slated for 2 p.m.