The Shippensburg University baseball team dropped game one of a three-game series to Catawba in walk-off fashion, 5-4, on Friday afternoon at Newman Park. Catawba overcame an early four-run deficit, plating single runs in the eighth and ninth innings to score the win.
 
Junior Jaxon Dalena (Cogan Station, Pa./Montoursville (Monmouth)) tossed eight strikeouts in relief for the Raiders. Dalena's first action was a strikeout to get out of a bases loaded jam in the fourth inning. Dalena went a total of 4.2 innings, allowing just two hits and one earned run.
 
Graduate Justin Byler (Lititz, Pa./Louisburg) hit a two-run homer to start a 2-for-4 day. Byler scored two runs and had two RBI. Junior Carter Hinds (Warrington, Pa./Central Bucks South) was 1-for-4 with an RBI single and a run scored in the leadoff spot.
 
Junior Gio Calamia (Burleson, Tex./Joshua (Mount Saint Mary's)) and senior Andrew Chronister (Dover, Pa./Dover Area) each went 1-for-3. Calamia earned an RBI with a sacrifice fly and Chronister had a run scored. Senior Austin Baal (Palmyra, Pa./Palmyra (Middle Tennessee State)) and junior Carter Arbuthnot (Oshawa, Ontario/Maxwell Heights Secondary (Niagara County C.C.)) each had a two-hit day for the Raiders.
 
Shippensburg (1-1) had 11 hits compared to Catawba's (5-3) six hits, but the Raiders left 10 runners stranded in the ballgame.
 
Byler's two-run blast in the top of the first gave SU a quick 2-0 start and back-to-back singles by Chronister and Arbuthnot in the second set up a two-out RBI single for Hinds. A sacrifice fly by Calamia in the third extended the Raiders lead to 4-0 and plated Byler, who doubled to lead off the inning.
 
Graduate Ryan Gleason (Laytonsville, Md./Georgetown Prep (Virginia Tech/Charles Southern) got the start, giving up just one hit through three scoreless innings before being tagged for three runs in the home half of the fourth.
 
A one-out bunt single started the Indians' rally. Gleason hit three consecutive batters with pitches to plate Catawba's first run. With the bases loaded, a groundout and a single made it a 4-3 ballgame. Dalena took the mound in relief, earning a strikeout with the bases still loaded to keep the Raiders ahead.
 
Dalena went on to strikeout seven more batters over the next three innings as the game settled down. The Raiders left two runners on base in the fifth, and neither team had a hit again until the eighth inning.
 
A triple and a walk started the bottom of the eighth for Catawba. A fielder's choice recorded the first out, but drove in the tying run, 4-4. The Indians loaded the bases, but a lineout and groundout ended the inning and all three baserunners were left stranded.
 
The Raiders threatened to rally in the top of the ninth, loading the bases with two outs. Catawba pitcher Cole Hales got out the jam, forcing a pop up on the infield for the final out. The Indians then loaded the bases in the bottom half of the ninth to set up its walk-off win.
 
A one-out double and single put runners on first and third, and a walk loaded the bases. Sophomore Brenden Anderson (Georgetown, Del./Sussex Central) struck out a batter for the second out but walk on a full count pitch to Catawba's Ty Hubbard brought home the winning run.
 
Catawba's Sam Hunter was 3-for-5 at the plate with two runs scored and Hubbard had two RBI for the Indians. Hales earned the win for Catawba with his scoreless inning in the ninth. Carson Edmiston pitched two perfect innings in relief and Mason Gwynn tossed a scoreless eighth inning.   
 
SU will look to even the series tomorrow for game two at 1 p.m. at. Newman Park.