MILLERSVILLE, Pa. - Thomas Caufield has been slowly heating up over the last month. Now, he's officially on fire. The senior shortstop went 6-for-8 with two home runs, two triples and a double in Sunday's doubleheader sweep of Shepherd.
The Marauders rolled to a 16-2 win in the opener behind Caufield's home run, two triples and five RBIs as well as
Carson Kulina's (7-1) six strong innings. In game two,
Bren Taylor delivered clutch doubles in the sixth and ninth innings to help Millersville to a 9-6 win.
Millersville (34-6, 16-2) has now swept five of its six PSAC East series, and the game two win extended the Marauders' winning streak to eight.
Caufield finished the series 9-for-13 with eight runs, 11 RBIs, three homers, three walks, two doubles and two triples. In the team's 18 PSAC East games, Caufield has hit .422 with seven doubles, four homers and 20 RBIs while also leading the team in runs, total bases, extra-base hits, slugging percentage and OPS.
"He made a swing adjustment in-game the other day, hit a home run, and said 'Oh, there's my swing,'" said Millersville head coach
Jon Shehan. "I won't tell anyone what it is, but he's back. He's swinging the bat like he's capable. His confidence is rolling. He's driving the ball to both fields. He's dangerous."
Caufield rediscovering his power has been an important addition to the lineup. He set the Millersville single-season home run record in 2022 but didn't hit a home run until the 15th game of 2023 and had just two through his first 33 games. But he's now hit four in the last five games, including one in each of the last three.
"The adjustment allows him to have more adjustability," said Shehan. "You saw it with the triple he hit to the opposite field in the first game today. It was an off-speed pitch that he was out in front on, but he stayed on it. When he came to third base I told him that it was the first time I'd see that particular swing, and it looked a lot like the swing from last year."
Caufield hit his first home run of the day to right-center, and his two-run home run in the eighth inning of game two cleared the fence in left-center. That shot extended Millersville's lead from one run to three and provided some cushion against a Shepherd lineup that leads the PSAC in nearly every major offensive category.
And with Caufield swinging the bat as he currently is, teams can no longer pitch around the .439-hitting Taylor, who extended his hitting streak 11 games with a single in game one and a 4-for-5 performance in game two that included two timely RBIs. Taylor has three four-hit outings in his last eight games.
In game two, Shepherd pulled with 5-4 with a four-run top of the sixth. Taylor put the Marauders up two by slapping a two-strike, two-out pitch down the third base line, driving in
Tyler Wright from third. After Shepherd tied the game at 6-6 in the seventh, Taylor broke the tie in the eighth with another two-out double that was slammed off the left-center field wall. That set up Caufield's home run, a three-run inning and Millersville's eventual win.
"Bren can beat you so many different ways," said Shehan. "He literally guided the ball down the left field line because there was a hole there. Then, with a runner on first base and two outs, we needed to drive the ball into a gap. It's situational hitting that we work on in practice. It's one thing to practice it and another thing to execute it, but that's Bren, and that's what he does."
It was a productive day at the plate for the majority of the Marauders' lineup. They totaled 13 hits and drew nine walks in the opener. Along with Caufield's three hits,
Keegan Soltis went 3-for-4 with three runs and a walk.
Matthew Williams drove in three, and
John Seibert hit a two-run home run. Kulina surrendered two runs on five hits and did not walk a batter while striking out six over six innings.
Cole Houser hit two home runs in game two, putting the Marauders on the board with a solo home run in the second inning and then building his team a 5-0 lead with a three-run shot in the third. On the mound, starter
Alex Mykut gave up just one hit over 5 1/3 innings and took a shutout into the sixth. He walked the first two batters and both scored off hits allowed by the bullpen.
Evan Rishell (3-0) picked up the mound win after tossing 2 1/3 scoreless innings.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
• Caufield, now with 22 home runs, moved into a tie for fifth with Derek Kline on Millersville's career home run list.
•
Jimmy Losh played his 200th and 201st career games and also saw his 700th at bat in game one.
• Rishell has allowed just one earned run in his last 12 appearances.
• Taylor moved into eighth in career doubles with 44.
Millersville has been 16-2 in the PSAC East just once before, and that was in 2016. That club went 25-3 in league play.
• Millersville is now 16-1 at home.
UP NEXT
• Millersville steps out of PSAC East play to face Wilmington at Cooper Park on Tuesday at 3 p.m.
