Gallery: (2-13-2026) 2026 Baseball vs. Saint Michaels 2.13
SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – The Shippensburg University baseball team scored seven runs in the first three innings Friday and used a pair of excellent pitching performances to achieve an 8-2 victory over Saint Michael's in the 2026 regular season opener at Fairchild Field.
Shippensburg (1-0) slugged its way to seven extra-base hits, each one achieved by a different Raider. The key to the victory was a four-run third inning in which all of the scoring came with two outs – highlighted by a two-run homer off the bat of sophomore
Will Oates.
Junior
Conner Barto overcame a wobbly first inning to earn the victory, allowing just one run on three hits over five innings in an excellent opening start. Barto struck out a career-high eight batters, including a stretch of six punchouts in a row spanning the third through fifth inning. He retired nine of the final 10 batters he faced.
Sophomore
Jacob Dennis was brilliant in relief – pitching four hitless innings to earn a save. Dennis retired the first nine men he faced, posting clean innings in the sixth, seventh and eighth. He also matched his career high with five strikeouts. Overall, 33 of his 49 pitches went for strikes. An error and a couple of walks resulted in an unearned run in the ninth.
Saint Michael's (0-1) began the game with a significant threat against Barto, loading the bases with one out after a Sam Cavossa triple and a pair of walks. Richard Gilboy drew a bases-loaded walk that opened the scoring, but Barto responded with a strikeout and a fielder's choice to escape the jam.
In the bottom of the first, sophomore shortstop and leadoff batter
Evan Shoffler manufactured a run to even the score. After legging out an infield single, he stole second with one out, and two batters later, scored on a wild pitch. Shoffler finished 2-for-4 with a walk, an RBI-single in the eighth, and a pair of stolen bases.
SU took the lead in the bottom of the second with a big two-run double from redshirt-sophomore
Brady Harbach, who earned the start at third base and manned the No. 9 spot in the lineup in his return to action after missing last season due to injury. Harbach sent a 3-2 pitch into the left-center field gap to plate Oates and senior
Mike Heckman, who doubled in the previous at-bat.
Before Oates' home run in the third, SU had already plated two runs in the frame. Junior catcher
Mason Morris led off with a double, and sophomore
Kyle Ausgotharp brought him home with a two-out double. Junior
Ty Sherman then singled home Ausgotharp to preface the home run.
All nine Raider starters finished at least one hit. Harbach, Shoffler and senior
AJ Wenrich had two-hit games. Redshirt-junior
Tony Falvo, who entered the game as a defensive replacement in the seventh inning, hit a two-out double in the bottom of the eighth inning and scored on Shoffler's single. It was Falvo's first game since the end of the 2023 season, as injuries sidelined him each of the last two campaigns.
Each team only used two pitchers. Purple Knight reliever Matt Safer performed admirably in relief, allowing just one run on four hits in 5.1 innings out of the bullpen. Safer walked just two and struck out four.
Shippensburg will host Saint Michael's at noon tomorrow for a doubleheader at Fairchild Field.
