The Shippensburg University baseball team lost the third and final game of its weekend series at Catawba on Sunday afternoon, completing a sweep of the Raiders by a score of 8-5 at Newman Park.
 
Senior Austin Baal launched his first home run of the year. Baal went 2-for-4 at the plate with six total bases and an RBI. Graduate Justin Byler continued his hot streak at the plate with two hits and two RBIs.
 
Byler was 7-for-13 at the plate in the series with six RBIs. Byler is batting. .533 through the first four games and both Byler and Baal have four-game hitting streaks to start the season.
 
Junior Jaxon Dalena was 1-for-4 at the plate with an RBI. Senior Andrew Chronister, junior Gio Calamia, sophomore Mike Heckman, and junior Carter Hinds all have a four-game hitting streak with a hit in the ball game.
 
Catawba struck first, scoring a run in its first action at the plate. Levi Perrell worked his way around the bases after a leadoff single. Perrell stole second then advanced to third, then home, from two groundouts for a 1-0 lead.
 
Baal's solo shot led off the second inning to tie the ballgame. A walk from Chronister and a double by Calamia set up first and third with no outs. A Dalena single to right field brought Chronister home for the lead, and Calamia scored for a 3-1 lead as the Indians turned a double play up the middle.
 
A two-out solo home run to left field by Logan Rogers in the bottom half of the second brought the Indians back within a run. Senior Gabe Stotler retired three straight batters in the third after a leadoff single, but the Indians tagged him for two more runs in the fourth to take back the lead.
 
Stotler tossed five innings for the Raiders, allowing four earned runs on five hits with two strikeouts. Catawba made it a 5-3 game in the bottom of the fifth from an unearned run.
 
An RBI double by Byler in the seventh cut into the Catawba lead, but three more runs by the Indians in the bottom half of the inning gave them an 8-4 cushion. Another RBI single by Byler in the ninth made it an 8-5 game, but the Raiders could not rally more.
 
Freshman Conner Barto tossed three innings in relief. Barto gave up three runs on three hits and struck out three batters.
 
Levi Perrell and Logan Rogers both had multi-hit games for Catawba. Rogers and Bo Rusher III each went for two RBI.    
 
SU is back in action for its home opener on Friday to open up a three-game series with Pitt-Johnstown at 2 p.m. Fairchild Field.