MILLERSVILLE, Pa. – The Millersville Marauders baseball team could not overcome the arm of Le Moyne College's Ryan Murphy in game one of Saturday's doubleheader and took a 6-4 loss. In game two, however, the offense exploded for 15 runs, 19 hits, and three home runs to secure the split and a 15-7 victory.
 
Junior catcher Luke Trainer was 5-for-5 in game two including a pair of those home runs and seven RBIs. Sophomore Jimmy Losh added four hits and three runs scored and raised his season batting average to a team-high .500. Cole Friese launched a two-run bomb to left field in the sixth inning and finished game two with a pair of hits and four RBIs. Eric Callahan, Jimmy Cain, and Darin Miller also all finished the game with two hits apiece.
 
Drew Miller got the start in game two and tossed five innings, giving up two earned runs and striking out seven Le Moyne batters. Andrew Mayhew pitched 2 1/3 innings in relief and got the victory to improve his record to 3-0. Kris Pirozzi entered in the ninth inning and struck out the side to end the game.
 
GAME ONE (LE MOYNE 6, MILLERSVILLE 4)
• The Le Moyne College Dolphins put up two runs in the top of the first inning off of Millersville starter Jeff Taylor and the Marauders did not respond until the bottom of the third. Cole Friese became a two-out baserunner after being hit by a pitch and Jimmy Losh looped a 3-1 pitch out to left field for a single. Friese was running on contact and used his speed to come home to cut the Le Moyne lead in half, 2-1.
• Le Moyne added a run in the top of the fourth to make it 3-1 and again Millersville battled back. Bren Taylor smashed a triple to right field in the bottom of the fifth inning and was promptly brought in by a Nick Mancuso sacrifice fly to left to make it a 3-2 game.
• After a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch gave Le Moyne a 4-2 lead in the top of the sixth, the Marauders tied the game in the bottom half. Losh led off the inning with a free pass to first base courtesy of a hit-by-pitch, and Eric Callahan followed it up by legging out an infield single to third base. Luke Trainer bunted both runners over and Darin Miller chopped the ball towards third yet again. The resulting rushed throw went wide of first base and both Callahan and Losh scooted home to make it a 4-4 game.
• Le Moyne displayed patience in the top of the seventh inning, drawing four walks and plating two runs to take a 6-4 lead. Dolphins starting pitcher Ryan Murphy did the rest, pitching the entire game and allowing five hits, two earned runs, and striking out ten. Millersville starter Jeff Taylor settled down after a rocky first inning, going five full innings, giving up three earned runs, and striking out seven.
 
GAME TWO (MILLERSVILLE 15, LE MOYNE 7)
• Just as the team did in game one, Le Moyne scored two runs in the top of the first to take an early lead. The Marauders roared back in the bottom half after two back-to-back singles from Jimmy Losh and Eric Callahan put two runners on for Luke Trainer. Trainer smashed a 1-0 pitch deep to right field for the three-run home run to put the Ville in the lead.
• The game was still close entering the bottom of the fifth, with Millersville hanging on to a 4-3 lead. That changed quickly, after Losh and Callahan stroked consecutive singles again, chasing Le Moyne starting pitcher Sam DiGeorge from the game. Joe Vail came in to pitch and surrendered back-to-back RBI doubles to Trainer and Jimmy Cain to make it a 7-3 game.
• The two teams' back-and-forth battle continued, with Le Moyne scoring four runs in the top of the sixth inning to tie the game at seven. Millersville did not hesitate in answering, as Nick Mancuso led off the inning with a single up the middle on the first pitch he saw. Cole Friese stepped in and hammered a 2-1 pitch over the fence in left field for his second home run of the season and a 9-7 lead. The next batter was Losh, sending a screamer to right center and legging out a triple. Trainer was next and cranked another homer (his second of the game and team-leading third of the season) out to left field for another two RBIs and an 11-7 lead in the game.
• The Marauders cobbled together four more runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to make it 15-7, capped off by Friese's two-out, two-run single to left that brought home Mancuso and Tyler Wright (who both had walked and stole second base.)
 
POST-GAME REACTION FROM HEAD COACH JON SHEHAN
• On today's performances: "In game one we faced a really good arm, Ryan Murphy did a fantastic job. He didn't really keep us off-balance but he just beat us with a really good fastball and located it everywhere. Game two I was really happy with the way the offense came out. We were relentless. We didn't play a clean game but the offense really carried us with 19 hits."
• On what the pitching staff must focus on: "It's the basic stuff, like getting the leadoff hitter out. That's got to improve if we want to be the pitching staff that we want to be and we're capable of being. It seemed like in game one especially, every time we got momentum on offense we'd go out and put the leadoff guy on and put ourselves in a bad spot. That shouldn't happen."
• On the value of this weekend's series to prepare for PSAC play: "Just playing the 7-9-9 setup is big for us to figure out how our pitching staff's going to work in those situations. A guy like Pirozzi who started earlier in the week came in to close a game out and that obviously worked well. This series is good to prepare us for conference play but we don't take any game lightly. We need to take care of business, whether it's game one of the season or our 20^th conference game."
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORES
• Eric Callahan finished both games with four total hits, three runs scored, and one stolen base (his sixth of the season.)
• The Marauders hit five doubles in the second game of the day (two from Trainer, two from Cain, and one from Bren Taylor,)
 
NOTES
• Luke Trainer's two home runs in game two were the sixth and seventh of his career. His seven RBI on the day increase his team-leading total to 21.
• Cole Friese's game two homer was the 19^th of his career.
• Jimmy Losh improved his hitting streak to 13 games.
• Millersville hit two triples between both games (one from Losh and one from Bren Taylor) to improve its team-leading PSAC total to 10 for the season.
• Six Marauders are now hitting at least .300 (Losh, Trainer, Callahan, Friese, Cain, and Darin Miller.)
 
UP NEXT
• The weekend series with Le Moyne College concludes on Sunday, March 8 at 1 p.m. at Cooper Park with a single nine-inning game.