Red Raiders Open Season with Doubleheader Split at West Georgia

Feb. 11, 2007

CARROLLTON, Ga. - Using a stellar pitching effort from senior Ross Buckwalter (Ephrata/Ephrata) the Shippensburg baseball team earned a 5-1 victory in the opening game of its 2007 campaign. But in the nightcap, the Red Raiders could not muster enough run support for sophomore Matt Wright (McClure/Mid-West), and dropped a 2-1 decision to West Georgia in Carrollton Saturday afternoon.

Buckwalter (1-0) hurled seven innings, allowing just five hits and one run while striking out six and walking zero. He had pitched a two-hit shutout through six innings, but West Georgia picked up its lone run after stringing together three-straight hits to start the seventh. Their rally was cut short, however, as Buckwalter dug in and recorded three-straight outs to give Ship it’s first victory of the season.

The Red Raiders jumped on the board in the third inning with three runs on two hits. Sophomore Jason Kelly (Harrisburg/Central Dauphin) and junior shortstop Eric Dezell (Bel Air, Md./John Carroll) led off the inning with walks and senior Eric Perlozzo (Cumberland, Md./Bishop Walsh) moved them into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. Sophomore Tyler Redick (Fairfield/Walkersville (Md.)) plated the two runners with an RBI single and junior Justin Garber (Elizabethtown/Elizabethtown) drove in Redick with a single of his own.

Ship added two more runs for good measure in the fifth inning when senior Scott Goss (Johnstown/Westmont Hilltop) drove in Redick and Garber with an RBI single.

Redick and Garber each recorded two hits for the victors. West Georgia’s Justin Orenstein suffered the loss after giving up five runs in five innings.

In the doubleheader finale, Matt Wright allowed one run on three hits and struck out eight in five innings of work, but gave way to the bullpen with the score tied 1-1 in the bottom of the sixth. Senior Stephen Slatcoff (Windber/Windber) worked through the sixth, but the West Georgia’s first two batters in the seventh singled and doubled. Junior Kyle Warner (Berrysburg/Upper Dauphin) entered, but could not escape the jam as Dan Williams recorded a walk-off single.

Slatcoff (0-1) shouldered the loss while Derrick Sheffield (1-0) earned the win for West Georgia. It was Wolves starter Cody Gossett that kept his team in the game. He tossed six innings and allowed one run on three hits.

Ship’s lone run came in the fifth when Redick drove in Perlozzo with an RBI single. Shippensburg managed just four hits in game two.

At days end, first-year head coach Matt Jones’s Red Raiders tallied a 1-1 record, while West Georgia improved to 2-1.

Shippensburg stay in Carrollton to take on West Georgia in a doubleheader on Sunday afternoon.

- Red Raider Baseball -