MILLERSVILLE, Pa. - Eli Nabholz's complete-game shutout in game one helped Millersville to a 5-0 win over Shippensburg in the opener of Friday's PSAC East doubleheader with visiting Shippensburg. The Marauders then took game two 5-4 behind four shutout innings of relief work from
Tyler Yankosky and
Ben Harris' two-out, fifth-inning single.
The wins pushed the 28th-ranked Marauders to 18-7 overall and 5-1 in PSAC East play. The Marauders also snapped Shippensburg's (11-12, 3-3 PSAC East) four-game winning streak.
GAME 1 RECAP (MILLERSVILLE 5, SHIPPENSBURG 0)
• The Raiders entered the day leading the PSAC in home runs, but Nabholz (4-1) was brilliant, needing just 78 pitches (56 of which were strikes) to breeze through seven shutout innings. Nabholz did not walk a batter and scattered four singles--two of which came in the first inning. After getting out of a bases-loaded jam in the opening frame, Nabholz sat down the Marauders in order three times in the next six innings and did not allow another base runner to reach scoring position. He fanned seven including one as part of a 1-2-3 seventh.
• Leadoff hitter
Cole Friese served as the Marauders' spark, reaching base in each at bat and scoring all three times. He singled to start the first and scored on a
Ben Snyder sacrifice fly. Snyder drove in Friese again with a single in the second.
Nick Graham added an RBI single in the fourth. Friese hit a leadoff triple to start the fifth and scored on
Kaylor Kulina's sacrifice fly.
Luke Trainer and
Jimmy Losh hit back-to-back doubles in the sixth to cap the scoring.
• Shippensburg's Jack Goertzen had three of the team's four hits. Friese, Kulina and Trainer all had two hits for the Marauders.
GAME 2 RECAP (MILLERSVILLE 5, SHIPPENSBURG 4)
• Shippensburg had just tied the game at 4-4 with a two-run double in the fourth, and there were runners on second and third with no outs. Millersville summoned Yankosky from the bullpen, and that was the end of any semblance of offense for the Raiders. Yankosky quickly ended the Raiders' fourth-inning threat with two pop outs to catcher
Ben Snyder and caught Jacob Pollock looking for the third out. Yankosky worked four innings in total, scattering three singles and striking out five. He recorded two punch outs in the seventh to clinch his first win of the season.
• Millersville led by scores of 3-0 and 4-2 before Shippensburg rallied to tie. In the fifth, Losh, who reached on a fielder's choice, swiped second base, and with two outs Harris muscled an inside pitch just beyond the reach of the Shippensburg shortstop into shallow left field. Losh scored what would stand as the game-winning run.
• Harris, filling in for the injured three-year starter
Manning Brookens, also drove in two runs with a double in the second inning.
• Friese went 2-for-4 and scored a run.
Dominic Hardaway went 2-for-4 with two doubles, a run and an RBI.
Jimmy Cain went 2-for-2 with a walk.
WHAT COACH JON SHEHAN HAD TO SAY
• "Eli was fantastic in game one. No free passes. He challenged a solid offense. I thought we hit situationally pretty well today.
Cole Friese had another great day. When he is getting on base as much as he is, it is going to be tough to stop our offense. Yankosky came in and saved the day in game two. That's why we put him in the bullpen. He can give us multiple innings. He was fantastic."
• "Eli came here as a guy who would throw 115 pitches in four innings and strikeout 12. He'd be full count, 2-2 on every guy. His progression has been tremendous. He mixed in the curve ball, he got ahead on it and threw it confidently."
• "The beauty of Yank's situation is that you can use him in the most crucial situations of the weekend. You kind of bet that you won't play one-run baseball tomorrow, but when you have a game in front of you that you can win, you use your best arm. He threw multiple times last week and his endurance is up."
• "(Harris) hit into the bases-loaded double play (in the third inning), and as a freshman, it was great to see him not hang his head and come back and make an adjustment. For him to hit with two strikes there was a nice highlight of the day."
NOTES
• With his 19th win, Nabholz moved into a tie with Brooks Rothschild for 10th place on Millersville's career wins list. He also moved into fourth in career strikeouts with 223 and trails record-holder Chris Murphy by just 13.
• Friese has reached base in all 25 games of the season. He has scored a run in 21 of 25 games and Millersville is 18-3 when he scores at least one run.
• Prior to his four innings in game two, Yankosky's longest outing of the season was three innings in the season opener at Lander.
• Snyder extended his hitting streak to 19 games--the longest by a Marauder since
Mitch Stoltzfus' 28-game streak in 2016.
UP NEXT
• Millersville travels to Shippensburg for a doubleheader at Fairchild Field on Saturday. First pitch is at 1 p.m.
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