Shippensburg University’s baseball team swept Staten Island on March 15 in two seven-inning games 10-1 and 2-0 to win the series, after splitting the first two games on Friday, March 14, at Fairchild Field.

It was the first time the Raiders faced Staten Island, as the Dolphins re-classified from NCAA Division III to NCAA Division II in 2019-2020.

After losing the opener on Friday 1-0, the nationally ranked No. 27 Raiders answered with a 13-2 victory in Game 2 to head into Saturday with the series split.

Game 1 on Friday was a pitcher´s duel. Graduate Jaxon Dalena struck out a season high of 10 batters in 6.2 innings. Staten Island´s starting Ryan Kehoe struck out five and earned the shutout, as he worked around four walks and two singles.

In Game 2, the Dolphins scored two runs in the first inning, but the Raiders answered with three runs in the bottom of the first inning and increased their lead from there, not allowing any more scores for the Dolphins.

Redshirt-senior Cameron Goble had to work around Staten Island´s two early scores but struck out five in five solid innings to earn the win.

On Saturday, the first game started with scores for both sides again. While Staten Island put up what would be their only run of the day at the top of the first inning, the Raiders put up scores in each of their first four at-bats in Game 1.

Freshman Will Oates hit a double as the leadoff hitter on the first pitch of the first at-bat to get the Raiders started. SU scored twice in the bottom of the first inning and did the same in the bottom of the second.

In the bottom of the third, SU brought home three runs and built their lead with one more run in the bottom of the fourth, making it 8-1. After a scoreless fifth inning, the Raiders drove in two more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to set the final score, 10-1.

Junior J.T. Weaver pitched five innings in the opener, struck out five and improved his record to 4-0 this season.

Freshman Evan Shoffler, No. 9 of the batting order, was the leading hitter of Game 1 for the Raiders, going 3-for-4 with three RBIs.

While Game 1 had lots of highlights and scores, Game 2 was a low-scoring game where the Raiders needed to grind out the victory.

Going into Game 2, head coach Matt Jones said he wanted his team to get back on track for a fresh start in the second game.

“I just really wanted them to get back on track,” Jones said. “You know the runs don´t carry over from the first game to the second. It kind of felt like Game 1 yesterday, where we just didn´t have a big inning and had to grind it out.”

Staten Island’s starting pitcher Alex Martinez gave them a strong game, as he threw six innings with just 75 pitches.

It took until the bottom of the fourth inning for SU to score. 

With one out for the Raiders, junior AJ Wenrich drew a walk to reach base. He then stole second base and advanced to third base because of a throwing error from Staten Island´s catcher while sophomore Ty Sherman was at-bat. Sherman then hit the next pitch into center field to bring Wenrich home for the first score of the game.

In the bottom of the fifth, Shoffler tripled to the right-center field. Three pitches later, Oates followed it up with a double to nearly the same spot and brought home Shoffler to double the Raiders’ lead to 2-0.

In the top of the seventh inning, Oates, who played all four games of the weekend as starting catcher, suffered an injury to his left shoulder, but was able to leave the field after treatment from the sports medicine team. Jones said the sports medicine team will do their best to get Oates healthy again as soon as possible and highlighted how Oates stepped up this weekend as starting catcher and leadoff hitter on Saturday.

“I know he didn´t come to the field yesterday thinking he was going to catch four games,” Jones said. “He didn´t come to the field today thinking he was going to be our leadoff hitter. He showed a lot of maturity, and he played great baseball.”

SU had a strong pitching staff throughout the second game, with none of them allowing a score for Staten Island. Sophomore Bryce Amos made his first start, recorded 12 outs with just 53 pitches and struck out three. Junior Jack Robinson recorded his third save of the season, as he got the final five outs.

The Raiders’ pitching was one of the keys to winning Game 2, according to Jones.

SU improved its record to 13-5 and looks to extend their three-game winning streak against Seton Hill on Tuesday. The Raiders host the Griffins for a non-conference, nine-inning game at Fairchild Field at 3 p.m.

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