WILSON, N.C. – A week after playing three games in Houston, Texas, the Millersville Marauders baseball team embarked on another road trip and split a doubleheader with Barton College in North Carolina. The Marauders dropped game one 2-1 despite strong pitching performances from starter Drew Miller and the bullpen but bounced back to win game two 11-5 after the heart of the Ville's lineup broke out offensively.
 
GAME ONE (BARTON COLLEGE 2, MILLERSVILLE 1)
• Barton manufactured a run against Millersville starter Drew Miller in the bottom of the first inning but Miller settled in and proceeded to toss four innings of scoreless baseball, allowing four hits, one walk, and striking out five.
 
• The Marauders tied the game in the top of the fourth inning with a manufactured run of their own. Cole Friese dropped a bunt down the third base line to reach first base, stole second, and advanced to third after a Luke Trainer single to centerfield. Jimmy Cain stepped in and executed the safety squeeze to bring in Friese and make it a 1-1 game.
 
• Reliever Bobby Dorta entered the game for Miller in the fifth and faced eight batters, striking out three.
 
• Millersville threatened in the top of the seventh after back-to-back one-out singles from Jimmy Cain and Manning Brookens. Corey Woodcock struck out but reached first on a passed ball to load the bases with two out, but Barton starting pitcher Gentry Fortuno got Bren Taylor to foul out to third base to end the frame and end his day on the mound. Fortuno threw 93 pitches, scattered six hits, and struck out nine Marauders.
 
• Aidan Welch relieved Dorta in the seventh inning and cruised until the ninth inning. Andres Machado led off with a single and then advanced to third after a Gerson Torres sacrifice bunt attempt forced an errant throw. Torres ended up on second base but Welch struck out Stancil Bowles for out number one. An intentional walk was issued to Noah Almond to load the bases and set up the double play but Brayden Olson was hit by a pitch, allowing Machado to score the game-winning run for Barton College.
 
GAME TWO (MILLERSVILLE 11, BARTON COLLEGE 5)
• Graduate student and Kutztown transfer Gavilan Fogarty-Harnish got the start in game two and allowed a first-inning home run to Noah Almond that gave Barton College a 2-0 lead. Fogarty-Harnish struck out the side in the first inning (three of his nine total strikeouts in the game.)
 
• Barton College maintained the lead until the third inning. Millersville leadoff hitter Eric Callahan was hit by a pitch, advanced to second base on a wild pitch, then advanced to third on a passed ball. Sophomore second baseman Jimmy Losh battled through a 10-pitch at bat against Barton starter Colby Shimmel before smacking a single into right field and driving in Callahan. Cole Friese doubled to move Losh over to third base and Luke Trainer brought him home with a sacrifice fly to right to tie the game 2-2.
 
• The game was broken open in the top of the fourth, with the bottom of the Ville's lineup giving Shimmel some trouble. Freshman Darin Miller singled and Nick Mancuso walked to put two runners on for Eric Callahan, who sent the ball to towards the shortstop and beat the throw to first, loading the bases. The next batter was Jimmy Losh, fresh off his marathon at-bat in the third, and sent the fourth pitch he saw into centerfield. A fielding error by Barton's Gerson Torres allowed Losh to reach third base and brought home all three runners to increase Millersville's lead to 5-2.
 
• The Marauders tacked on two more runs in the top of the fifth thanks to a Luke Trainer home run to left field and a Darin Miller sacrifice fly that brought in Jimmy Cain. The Ville plated four runs in the top of the sixth courtesy of a Trainer RBI single, two bases-loaded walks drawn by Manning Brookens and Miller, and a wild pitch that allowed Cain to score his second run of the game and increase Millersville's lead to 11-4.
 
POST-GAME REACTION FROM HEAD COACH JON SHEHAN
• On the team's performance in game one: "I thought Drew Miller threw the ball really well. We did execute to get the safety squeeze to tie the game but we just came up against a buzzsaw. Their starter pitched well. In a one-run game like that, we have to do a better job with our pitching and defense in key situations. They executed down the stretch and we didn't."
 
• On the emergence of the offense in game two: "The offense was really good. We didn't hit just for power but we did a good job situationally hitting and had good at-bats. Jimmy Losh fouled off six pitches in the third then got hold of one through the hole to really get us going. That at-bat changed the game because it can be so demoralizing for the opposing team."

• On preparing for tomorrow's doubleheader: "We need to take care of the ball defensively after we walk a guy. We need to take care of pounding the zone after an error. The story of the games today was compounded mistakes where we do things like throw the ball away and then hit a guy back-to-back. If we avoid that we're fine. We're going to make mistakes but we have to pick each other up."
 
NOTES
• Cole Friese totaled four hits and two runs scored between the two games. Luke Trainer also finished the day with four hits, including three RBIs and his first home run of the season (the fifth of his career.)
• Millersville stole four bases in game one courtesy of Callahan, Friese, Trainer, and Tyler Wright.
• Four Marauders (Trainer, Eric Callahan, Jimmy Losh, and Jimmy Cain) scored two runs in the second game of the day.
• Gavilan Fogarty-Harnish got the game two win to improve to 2-0 on the season.
• Today's games were only the third and fourth meetings between Barton College and Millersville. Barton had previously swept a pair of games in 2010 by scores of 6-0 and 14-13.
 
UP NEXT
• The two teams gear up for another doubleheader (one nine-inning game and one seven-inning game) on Sunday, Feb. 9 beginning at 11 a.m.