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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Freshman
Conner Barto tossed three innings in relief. Barto gave up three runs on three hits and struck out three batters.
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Levi Perrell and Logan Rogers both had multi-hit games for Catawba. Rogers and Bo Rusher III each went for two RBI. Â Â Â
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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.
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