MILLERSVILLE, Pa. - Jimmy Cain's first-inning home run and Drew Miller's 4 2/3 shutout innings set the tone, and top-seeded Millersville held off a hard-charging Seton Hill club for an 8-5 round one win in the PSAC Tournament. 

Millersville (38-12) has now won five consecutive first round games in the conference tournament, but Wednesday's win over the two-time defending champs didn't come easy. Seton Hill (29-20) came into the game having won seven of eight and had won the tournament as a No. 4 seed two years in a row, including topping Millersville in the 2018 title tilt. It was the 10th postseason match-up between the teams since 2011. Each team has now won five games. 

"[Seton Hill] is an energy team always," said Millersville head coach Jon Shehan. "Our team this year, there is a lot of calm, not a lot of rah-rah in the dugout. Usually when it is Millersville and Seton Hill it is yelling back-and-forth, but tonight, our guys stayed in the present and focused on what they could control."

The Marauders struck first with Cain's two-run homer followed by Cole Friese's two-out, two-run single in the second. The 4-0 lead lasted until Seton Hill's Chris Law hit a three-run home run in the fifth. But every time Seton Hill closed the gap, the Marauders opened it right back up. Cain and Friese usually had something to do with the run production. 

"Cain has been on fire," said Shehan. "He has been tremendous in the second half of the season. He's been our go-to-guy when we need runs driven in. Friese is our catalyst. When he gets on base we are really hard to beat. He is really hard to handle on the base paths and it gives our hitters more fastballs."

Millersville answered Law's homer in the bottom of the inning. Friese sacrificed Jimmy Losh and Manning Brookens into scoring position, and Kaylor Kulina singled through the right side to score Losh. Seton Hill retaliated with a run in the sixth, but in the bottom of the seventh, with the score 5-4, Friese singled and raced home from first when Kulina hit a rocket that one-hopped past first baseman Parker Denny into the right field corner. Kulina reached third with a standup triple then scored on Cain's sacrifice fly. Dominic Hardaway provided some insurance in the eighth with a solo home run that sailed over the 410 sign in straight-away center field. 

Miller, pitching two days short of normal rest, gave up just three hits and struck out five before exiting with Seton Hill's top of the order coming to the plate two outs into the fifth. Paul Wilson bridged the gap, working through the sixth and seventh innings for his longest outing of the season before handing the ball to Tyler Yankosky who picked up a two-inning save.

Wilson pitched his way out of a couple tough spots. In the sixth, Isaiah DiAndreth hit a one-out triple and scocred on a sacrifice fly. But Wilson struck out senior Colton Carney to end the threat and preserve Millersville's lead. A leadoff double in the seventh amounted to nothing when Wilson sat down the top of Seton Hill's lineup in order.

"Wilson is so mature," said Shehan. "He is able to step out of a situation, not hear the dugout and not panic and go back to what he is good at--pounding the zone with three pitches. Any time a guy throws that many strikes, you can limit the damage. That's what he does."

Yanosky stranded a runner at third base in the eighth. Then, in the ninth, a hit batsman and single from Austin Braendel put the tying run at the plate with one out. Yankosky got Law--the hitter that jump-started Seton Hill's rally in the fifth--to hit a chopper to Losh at third. Losh quickly stepped on third for the force out and fired to first to end the game. 

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
• Wilson (1-0) made his postseason debut and was credited with the first win of his career. Yanosky earned his fifth save. 
• All nine hitters in Millersville's lineup recorded at least one hit, and Friese and Kulina both had two hits and two RBIs. 
• Hardaway's home run was his team-leading 12th of the season. Cain has hit 

NOTES
• Cain's five home runs have all come in his last 26 games. He has a team-leading 33 RBIs in that span. 
• Cain has produced at least one RBI in each of his five career PSAC Tournament games. 

UP NEXT
• Millersville plays Bloomsburg Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Millersville won three of four in the regular season series with Bloomsburg, losing in extra-innings in game two of the series.