Box Scores
W 2-1
L 10-3

MILLERSVILLE - Senior right-hander Tyler Eckman won a pitchers duel with a 2-1 complete game victory in the opener as East Stroudsburg University split the first half of this weekend's PSAC East baseball series at No. 22-ranked Millersville on Friday afternoon.

ESU (16-13-1, 6-7-1) hosts the Marauders (22-12, 6-8) on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Mitterling Field as the Warriors hold their annual Military Appreciate Day and Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Day.

Eckman improved to 5-0 in seven starts and lowered his PSAC-leading ERA to 1.37 with an impressive four-hit, four-strikeout, no-walk effort.

ESU's offense plated two runs in the second inning off Millersville sophomore right-hander Eli Nabholz, a transfer from Penn State, who entered 5-0 with a 3.17 ERA and 59 strikeouts in 48.1 innings of work.

Millersville won the nightcap, 10-3. Tyler Yankosky didn't allow a hit until ESU junior catcher Steven Zimmerman, Jr. hit a two-run homer in a three-run sixth inning that pulled the Warriors within 6-3, but the Marauders got four in the bottom of the sixth.

Millersville, last year's NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional champion and national runner-up, is listed No. 22 in this week's Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll.

GAME 1 - W 2-1

Eckman faced just one over the minimum through four innings, and had a 2-0 lead to work with before Millersville got on the board with an RBI single by Ted Williams in the bottom of the fifth.

Eckman retired Millersville leadoff hitter Chas McCormick, who recently set his school career hits record, with runners on second and third to get out of the inning. He sat down the Marauders 1-2-3 in both the sixth and seventh innings - getting the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 hitters in order in the sixth - to seal his first complete game of the season and the fourth of his career.

The Warriors did their damage in the second inning against Nabholz, who threw a no-hitter earlier this season but was knocked out in 4.2 innings after throwing more than 110 pitches (2 runs, 4 hits, 11 strikeouts, 5 walks, HBP).

Freshman OF Carson Freeman hit a one-out single and stole second, redshirt senior OF Casey Saverio walked and a wild pitch advanced the Warriors' runners to second and third. After a strikeout, redshirt senior 2B Jay Young hit a two-out, two-run single up the middle for a 2-0 lead.

The was all the help Eckman would need as the two teams combined for just nine hits (five for ESU, four for Millersville).

Senior OF Ian Allen, seventh in the PSAC in batting average (.410) entering the weekend, was 2-for-2 with a walk and HBP and Saverio was 1-for-2 with two walks. ESU drew seven walks, five off Nabholz and two from Kyle Peterson (2.1 IP, hit).

GAME 2 - L 10-3

ESU sent five pitchers to the mound, while Millersville's Yankosky (2-0, 4.11 ERA in six starts) didn't allow a hit until two outs in the sixth inning.

The Marauders scored two runs each in the second, fourth and fifth innings before the Warriors broke through in the sixth. The first three batters reached - redshirt freshman OF Tom Nuneviller (HBP), freshman SS Joey Paolini (walk) and Young (walk) - before Yankosky got a double play with Nuneviller scoring on the play.

Zimmerman broke up the no-hitter with his sixth home run of the season (15th career), a two-run shot, to get the Warriors within 6-3. Redshirt senior 1B Dylan Tamecki doubled before Yankosky got out of the inning.

Five players had one hit each for ESU. Manning Brookens was 3-for-4 with a double, three RBI and two runs in the No. 7 spot for Millersville, which had had 20 baserunners (9 hits, 10 walks, HBP).

GAME NOTES

* Young extended his hitting streak to 11 games, ESU's longest of the season, in the opener before having it end in the nightcap. His streak started in the first game of a doubleheader at West Chester on March 25.

* Young recorded his 100th and 101st career RBI to score ESU's two runs in the game 1 win. He is the 12th player in program history with 100 career RBI.