Box Score
L 5-4
L 8-4

SHIPPENSBURG - No. 9-ranked Shippensburg held on for a 5-4 win over East Stroudsburg University in game one, then won the nightcap 8-4 to take both ends of Saturday's PSAC East baseball doubleheader.

The Red Raiders (16-6), the top-ranked team in last week's NCBWA Atlantic Region poll, won this weekend's series, 3-1. ESU (7-6) won the second game of Friday's doubleheader at Mitterling Field, 7-0, behind a four-hit shutout from junior Ryan Lubreski. Ship won the opener, 6-2.

Senior OF Eric Boyer was 3-for-6 with three RBI on Saturday and was 9-for-12 with seven RBI, two runs and two walks in the series. He was 6-for-6 with a walk, reaching in all seven plate appearances, on Friday. Boyer recorded his 100th career RBI and is tied for 6th at ESU with 102 RBI, coming in 122 career games.

Freshman OF John Armbrust was 5-for-12 and three Warriors - junior catcher Eric Forth, junior OF Chris Knott and junior SS Eric Linares - were all 4-for-10 on the weekend. ESU hit .330 (35-for-106) over the four-game set.

ESU didn't commit an error in 113 chances, raising its fielding percentage to .981 on the season.

The Warriors are away from conference action until April 5-6 against Mansfield, and have six non-conference games scheduled this week. They host Bloomfield on Monday and Nyack on Tuesday for single nine-inning games, travel to St. Rose (N.Y.) for a doubleheader Thursday, and host the University of the Sciences for two games on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Game 1

ESU nearly rallied from a 5-3 deficit in the seventh, but Shippensburg threw out the game-tying run at the plate to end the game after a failed pickoff attempt.

Forth hit a leadoff double and scored on a two-out RBI single by Linares to get the Warriors within 5-4. Redshirt freshman 3B Drew Hercik drew a walk to move Linares to second, bringing on Shippensburg reliever Marcus Shippey to replace starter Shawn Patterson (6.2 IP, 6 hits, 4 runs).

Shippey threw away a pickoff attempt at first base and Linares was waved home from second, but Ship second baseman Jimmy Spanos recovered the errant throw and cut down Linares to end it.

ESU took a 3-1 lead in the top of the third inning, scoring three runs on three hits. Junior 1B Mark Romano drew a leadoff walk, Armbrust singled and both moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Linares to start the inning. Hercik followed with an RBI single to score Romano, and Boyer hit a two-out, two-run single to plate Armbrust and Hercik to put the Warriors in front.

Shippensburg tied it at 3-3 in the bottom of the third on a two-run triple by Spanos. The Red Raiders went ahead in the fifth, and added another run in the sixth on a two-out homer by Cal Hogan.

Junior Matt Smith (4.0 IP, 6 hits, 4 runs, 3 strikeouts, 1 walk) took his first loss of the season, falling to 2-1. Junior Colin Taylor pitched 2.0 innings in relief, struck out one and yielded one run.

Patterson improved to 4-0 on the season for Shippensburg.

Game 2

Shippensburg scored five runs on five hits in the fourth inning to open a 7-3 lead after the Warriors went in front, 3-2, in the third.

Forth had an RBI single and Romano drew a run-scoring walk in the third, but ESU left the bases loaded. The Warriors added another run in the sixth on a two-out RBI single by Boyer.

Knott and Linares were both 3-for-3 at the plate as ESU had 10 hits.

Kyle McClintock was the winner in relief for Ship, coming on to get the final out of the third inning and going 3.0 innings on the mound. Shippey (1.1 IP) picked up his second save of the day, entering with a 7-4 lead in the sixth inning.

ESU sent four pitchers to the mound with junior Keenan Stare taking the loss. Taylor was the most effective, getting all three outs in the sixth, including two strikeouts.