MILLERSVILLE, Pa. – The Shepherd University baseball team earned a PSAC East doubleheader sweep of Millersville at Cooper Park on Saturday afternoon, 8-4 and 8-6, a rare feat which had not been accomplished on the Marauders' home turf since May 3, 2013.
 
Balls were carrying out of the ballpark for both teams, with six round-trippers combined on the day, but pitching was what secured the game one victory for Shepherd. Starter Steve Bowley tossed six strong innings of one-run baseball and struck out ten before a Jimmy Losh homer chased him from the game in the seventh inning. Millersville starting pitcher Alex Mykut looked sharp but exited the game after just 14 pitches due to injury. The Marauder bullpen was called upon earlier than expected but kept the game relatively close until the top of the seventh, when Shepherd opened up an 8-1 lead courtesy of a Jared Carr three-run homer, a Brennan Holmes RBI double, and a bases-loaded walk by Cole Daugherty, one of 11 free passes given up by the Ville staff in game one.
 
Christian Wingard earned his first career start in game two as the bullpen again had to shoulder the pitching load. Wingard and Wyatt Tyson handled the first three innings of the day but Shepherd tagged them with five total runs. The Ville's comeback effort began in earnest in the fourth inning—with a pair of two-run homers from Justin Taylor and Bren Taylor cutting the Shepherd lead to just a single run—but the Rams' Joey Goldsmith came up with a clutch two-run shot of his own in the fifth to secure the Shepherd sweep.
 
Losh was locked-in at the plate in both games, finishing a combined 5-for-7 with four RBIs and two home runs, raising his batting average by about 70 points.
 
The upcoming week's schedule is jam-packed for Millersville, with games three and four of the Shepherd series on the road on Monday, a pair of home games versus Shippensburg on Tuesday, then a four-game set with West Chester next weekend.
 
GAME ONE (SHEPHERD 8, MILLERSVILLE 4)
• Alex Mykut started the game strong, striking out two batters in one-and-a-third innings, but exited after an injury in the second inning. Bobby Dorta came on in relief and retired the first two batters he faced.
• Millersville took an early lead in the bottom of the second after Nick Mancuso drew a two-out walk and was promptly driven in by Jimmy Losh, who roped a double to right center for the 1-0 advantage.
• Shepherd opened up an 8-1 lead after an eventful top of the seventh inning, but Millersville tried to stage an improbable comeback in the bottom half. Mancuso and Losh were again responsible for two runs, as Mancuso walked to lead off the inning and Losh skied one over the fence in left-center for his second home run of the season. Tyler Wright kept the rally going with a single and a stolen base, scoring on a Luke Trainer single through the right side to make it an 8-4 game, but that is as close as the Marauders would come.

GAME TWO (SHEPHERD 8, MILLERSVILLE 6)
• Shepherd's bats picked up right where they left off from game one, building a 5-0 lead, including a pair of two-run singles from Cole Daugherty and Daniel Keer in the second and third innings, respectively. Eric Callahan connected on a sacrifice fly in the third to plate Bren Taylor (who led off the inning with a triple) to make it a 5-1 game.
• Shepherd scored another run in the top of the fourth after Dalton Stewart grounded into a double play with the bases loaded and no one out. Down 6-1, the Ville's bats woke up in a big way in the bottom of the frame. Darin Miller poked a leadoff single to left and came home after Justin Taylor crushed a ball to right field for a two-run shot. It was déjà vu later in the inning when Jimmy Losh singled and was then driven in on a Bren Taylor moon shot to right field to make it 6-5 and bring Millersville within a single run.
• Kris Pirozzi pitched the longest outing of his career (four total innings, 81 pitches, four strikeouts) and settled down after getting out of the bases-loaded jam in the fourth, but surrendered a two-out, two-run homer to Joey Goldsmith in the fifth that shifted momentum back towards Shepherd and gave them an 8-5 lead. Losh hit his second homer of the day in the sixth inning, a solo shot to make it 8-6, but Shepherd's Mitchell Wilson entered the game in the seventh to get the last three outs and earned his first save of the season.
 
REACTION FROM COACH JON SHEHAN
• On some positives from today: "I thought we swung the bat well, and Jimmy Losh looks like Jimmy Losh. He made some adjustments at practice and the light bulb immediately went on. We saw it happen yesterday in BP and what we saw there translated to the game. He's back, and that's really good to see."
• On what went wrong: "The story of the day comes down to free passes. When we walk 17 guys, hit a few more, and have some wild pitches, it's really hard to win. It's soul-searching time. The talent is certainly there, and we've seen these guys throw a lot of strikes throughout their careers. We have to figure it out. Every individual needs to look at themselves and know that they're capable and trust it. No excuses. It's going to be a short, fast, hard season and we need to be ready to go and need to play better than we did today."

NOTES
• Prior to today, the last time the Marauders were swept by a PSAC East conference opponent at Cooper Park was by the East Stroudsburg Warriors (2-0 and 4-3 on May 3, 2013.
• ESU was also the last team to win the first game of a home doubleheader at the Coop, back on April 29, 2019.
• Bren Taylor's 13-game hitting streak and Darin Miller's eight-game hitting streak both came to an end after game one.
• Bren and Justin Taylor's home runs in the fourth inning of game two were both the first of their collegiate careers.

UP NEXT
• Games three and four of the series versus Shepherd University will be contested on Monday, April 12 beginning at 1 p.m.