Baseball Sweeps Final Two Games At Mount Olive

MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. - Senior Ryan Miscik (Mount Pleasant, Pa./Mount Pleasant) hit a two-run single to break a 3-3 tie in the top of the fourth inning as the Shippensburg University baseball team came-from-behind to defeat Mount Olive College, 7-5, in game one of a doubleheader Sunday afternoon at Scarborough Field.
 
Shippensburg (3-1) went on to win game two, 3-0, to complete the sweep behind junior Nick Erdman (Leola, Pa./Conestoga Valley) who allowed just two hits in six scoreless innings.  The Red Raiders won three of the four games against the Trojans (3-6) this weekend after splitting games one and two of the series on Saturday.
 
The first three batters all singled to lead off the bottom of the first inning in game one for Mount Olive as the Trojans would score three in the inning to take an early 3-0 lead. Ricky Davis led off the inning with a single to right field before Michael Glass and Stephen Nordan both reached on bunt singles. Davis scored the first run on an errant throw to first, Glass came home on a ground out and Nordan scored on a single by Jonathan Pullen.
 
Shippensburg scored its first run in the top of the third after Erdman led off with a single up the middle and proceeded to steal second. He would later score on a single by sophomore Jared Boger (Lebanon, Pa./Cedar Crest), the first of five-straight runs for the Red Raiders as they would take the lead following a four-run fourth inning.
 
With two outs and runners on second and third, Miscik bounced a single over the head of Justin Staatz to give Shippensburg a 5-3 lead.
 
Mount Olive added a run in the fifth to cut the Shippensburg lead to 6-5, but sophomore Scott Goss (Johnstown, Pa./Westmont Hilltop) hit a solo home run in the top of the sixth while sophomore Frank D'Agostino (Pine Grove, Pa./Pine Grove) retired all six batters he faced over the final two innings to pick up the save. Goss finished the game 1-for-2 with two runs and an RBI.
 
Junior Nathan Sterner (Aspers, Pa./Biglerville) went 5.0 innings to pick up the win for the Red Raiders and Staatz took the loss for the Trojans, surrendering five runs, all earned, in 4.0 innings.
 
In the second game, Shippensburg scored single runs in each of the first three innings and Erdman made it stand, holding Mount Olive hitless until the fourth inning by retiring 17 of the first 19 batters he faced while sophomore Brian Boylan (Tannersville, Pa./Pocono Mountain) retired the side in order in the seventh for the save.
 
The Red Raiders scored three runs on only six hits, but it was enough as senior Chad Stecker (Saylorsburg, Pa./Pleasant Valley) scored on an error in the top of the first to give Shippensburg all the runs it would need.
 
Shippensburg returns to North Carolina next weekend to face Wingate University in a doubleheader on Saturday and Sunday.

- Red Raider Baseball -