The Shippensburg University baseball flexed its muscles in a victory over No. 4 Catawba Saturday in North Carolina, 14-8.
Shippensburg (1-1) smashed a total of five home runs against Catawba (3-3) pitching, including a pair of bombs off the bat of senior
Gio Calamia as head coach
Matt Jones captured his 600th career victory as a collegiate head coach.
The Raiders went back-to-back twice. Freshman
Thomas Cano-Piszel and freshman
Kyle Ausgotharp, both of whom were making their first collegiate start, crushed their first collegiate home runs (both solo shots) on back-to-back pitches in the top of the second inning to give SU an early 3-1 lead.
Calamia and junior
AJ Wenrich went back-to-back with solo shots again in the fifth, and Calamia launched his second an inning later – this one a two-run shot – to make it a 10-1 game.
On the mound, SU junior J.T.Weaver held the Indians' lineup in check over five innings, scattering five hits and allowing just one earned run to earn the win. He struck out two and walked two.
Junior
Mike Heckman added a two-run double in the seventh before Catawba plated seven runs in the last two frames against the Raider bullpen.
Calamia had a career day at the plate, finishing 3-for-6 with three RBI and three runs scored. Ausgotharp finished with two hits (2-for-4) and two runs scored.
Freshman
Thomas Davenport was a star for the Raiders in relief. The right-hander got SU out of a bases loaded jam in the sixth and fanned four over 1.1 hitless frames.
Dylan Driver stroked three hits for Catawba. Nathan Crismon clubbed an eighth-inning three-run home run.
Jones, in his 19th season as head coach at Shippensburg ('07-present), has amassed 452 wins in charge of the Raiders. His previous 148 wins came as head coach at Elizabethtown ('00-'06).
The rubber match of the three-game series against Catawba is set for Sunday at noon.
