SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – The Shippensburg University baseball team saw its bats get back on track as they salvaged a doubleheader split against the Lock Haven Bald Eagles on Alumni Day Saturday at Fairchild Field, 4-3 and 8-6.
 
Shippensburg (19-17, 7-8 PSAC East) answered back to tie the score on three separate occasions before taking the lead late to win Game 2. The Raiders collected double-digit hits (10) for the first time in five games and scored their most runs in seven contests (an 8-7 win at Shepherd March 31).
 
Right in the thick of it for the Raider offense was freshman infielder Mike Heckman, who totaled four RBIs and collected the game-winning hit in the bottom of the sixth inning in SU's Game 2 victory.
 
Lock Haven (12-15, 5-10) posted a four-run top of the fifth to take Game 1. Francisco Taveras' two-out, two run single was the difference in the opener. The Bald Eagle second baseman had a standout day at the plate, collecting a pair of hits in both halves of the doubleheader Saturday, scoring a total of three runs.
 
Between games, the Raiders recognized the 15th year and 10th year anniversaries of the 2008 and 2013 teams, the last two Raider squads to reach the College World Series.
 
The Raiders hit the road mid-week, heading west to take on the IUP Crimson Hawks in a nonconference tilt Tuesday at 3 p.m.
 
Game 1: Lock Haven 4, Shippensburg 3
 
The Raiders knack for answering back against the Bald Eagles began in the opener. After the visitors touched up SU for four runs in the top half of the fifth, Heckman responded with a bases-clearing, three-run double to make it a one-run margin in home half of the frame.
 
SU had several opportunities to push the tying run across late in the contest. Sophomore Carter Hinds and freshman Tony Falvo smashed singles to start the sixth, but Hinds was thrown out attempting to score on a bang-bang play at home plate.
 
Sophomore Carter Arbuthnot and Heckman reached in the last chance seventh, but the Raiders were unable to get the two-out hit needed to send the game to extras.
 
Junior Jackson LoBianco got the start in the opener and fell to 3-1 on the season with the loss. He was charged with four runs in 4.2 innings. Junior Ethan Miller allowed just two hits in 2.1 inning of relief.
 
Lock Haven right-hander Kevin Worek earned the win, scattering three runs on five hits over five frames. Matt Lingenfelter worked his way into and out of trouble in the seventh to earn the save.
 
Game 2: Shippensburg 8, Lock Haven 6
 
Shippensburg played catch-up for most of nightcap before taking the lead for good in the bottom of the sixth inning on Heckman's clutch RBI hit.
 
Sophomore Jaxon Dalena provided the Raiders with a vital insurance run with a long inside-the-park homerun to straightaway center in the eighth, and junior Austen LaBarre fanned five over three terrific frames to pick up his sixth save of the season.
 
Shippensburg answered Lock Haven's three-run top of the first with three-run rally in the second, which included an RBI single off the bat of redshirt-sophomore Brock Piper.
 
A Zeiders long ball gave the Bald Eagles the lead again in the third, only for junior Andrew Chronister to tie the game up once more with an RBI double in the fourth.
 
The see-saw battle continued with both teams plating a pair in the fifth.
 
Redshirt-freshman Eric Bohenek got the win on the mound for the Raiders in relief of freshman J.T. Weaver. Both pitchers allowed two earned runs in three innings of work.
 
Dalena (2-for-4) and sophomore Gio Calamia (2-for-3) scored twice for Shippensburg.
 
Dalena also added an outfield assist, keeping the Raiders' lead intact by throwing out a Lock Haven runner at the plate to end the top half of the eighth.