ABOUT THE GAME

• The 16th-ranked Millersville Marauders currently sit in first place in the PSAC East, but a red-hot Shippensburg Raiders club has moved up the standings with seven-straight wins and back-to-back sweeps of PSAC East series. The two teams begin the three-game series with a nine-inning game at Fairchild Field on Friday before meeting at Cooper Park for a doubleheader on Saturday. 
• Millersville jumped five spots in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Top 30 this week and is now the PSAC team with the highest national ranking. West Chester sits at No. 17 and Seton Hill, which edged the Marauders by a 2-1 score on Tuesday, is No. 22. East Stroudsburg, Slippery Rock and Mercyhurst all received votes. In the NCBWA poll, West Chester held the top spot among PSAC programs at No. 15 while Millersville came in at No. 22 and Seton Hill at No. 25. 
• Millersville has won nine in a row at home and holds an 11-1 record at The Coop this season. 
• This series features the PSAC East's reigning award winners. Millersville's Bren Taylor won the athlete of the week award after going 8-for-18 with seven runs and five RBIs in last week's four-game stretch. Ship's Noah Nabholz won the pitcher of the week award after tossing a complete game with one run allowed against Lock Haven. 

SCOUTING THE MARAUDERS

• Prior to Tuesday's game against Seton Hill, Millersville had scored at least five runs in 11 of the previous 12 games. It was only the third time in 29 games that Millersville had been limited to two runs or fewer. Millersville also 4-0 in one-run games prior to the loss. But the Marauders still lead the PSAC in runs scored, rank second in hitting (.323), third in slugging percentage (.323) and third in on base percentage (.422). Millersville has scored double-digit runs 11 times. 
• On the mound, Millersville has limited opponents to three runs or fewer 13 times, posting five shutouts. The team ERA of 3.41 ranks second in the PSAC, and the staff's .234 batting average against is third. No staff in the PSAC has allowed fewer home runs than Millersville's nine. The bullpen has been particularly strong of late, posting a 2.60 ERA with 11 earned runs allowed over the last seven games (38 innings). While Sam Morris suffered the loss Tuesday, he has settled into the late-inning role, allowing just two runs with 14 strikeouts and one walk in 11 ? innings. He and Kris Pirozzi have combined for seven saves. Since allowing two runs in his debut, Nate Young has allowed just two earned runs and walked six while striking out 24 over his last nine games totaling 18 ? innings. 
• Luke Trainer enters the series riding a 10-game hitting streak, ranking fourth in the PSAC (and first among PSAC East hitters) in batting average (.429) and on base percentage (.508). Thomas Caufield is the league leader in RBIs (39) and doubles (12).
• Jimmy Losh has been the Marauders' table-setter. He's second in the PSAC in runs scored and has gone 6-for-9 in his last two games.
   

SCOUTING THE RAIDERS

• Shippensburg is making a habit of winning close games. Four of the wins in the recent seven-game streak have been decided by two runs or fewer. Most recently, the Raiders edged Frostburg State, a team ranked in the latest NCBWA Atlantic Region Poll, by a 2-1 score. Four Raiders pitchers held Frostburg State scoreless for eight innings. Shippensburg is 14-8 since starting the season 0-9 and are 8-6, winning five of the last six at home. 
• Shippensburg's pitching has been a strength, holding teams to no more than five runs in nine-straight games. Nabholz's 2.11 ERA is ninth in the PSAC and he has no allowed more than three runs in any appearance this season. He doesn't strike out a ton of batters, averaging 0.78 per inning pitched, but he's surrendered just seven extra-base hits with a batting average against of .218. Nabholz is the cousin of former Millersville PSAC East Pitcher of the Year Eli Nabholz. Nick Zegna has tossed six or more innings in eight-straight starts, allowing zero runs four times. 
• At the plate, Andrew Chronister and Ben Werkheiser had hitting streaks of nine and 10 games respectively until Wednesday's win over Frostburg State. Justin Darden is a home run threat with eight. Last weekend, he hit two in the series opener against Lock Haven.

SERIES HISTORY VS. SHIPPENSBURG

• Millersville had scored 13-straight victories over Shippensburg until the Raiders scratched out a 6-5 win the 2021 series finale. Millersville won at least three of four games in 10 of the last 13 series. Four of the last seven games have been decided by one run. One of those was Millersville's 4-3 win at home last season when it scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh and walked off when Jimmy Losh scored on a Noah Nabholz wild pitch. Shippensburg's last series win came in 2017 when it took three of four. In last season's series finale, Shippensburg rallied from a 5-1 deficit, and Nabholz struck out seven with one earned run allowed in 5 ? innings. 
• The Last Meeting vs. Shippensburg - Shippensburg 6, Millersville 5 (April 20, 2022)