Box Score

BUTLER, Pa. – The Shippensburg University baseball team cranked out 14 hits on Thursday night – including 12 against All-PSAC starter Eric Aschley – while senior Nick Umberger struck out eight in a nine-inning complete game as the Raiders defeated No. 23 Mercyhurst in Game 8 of the 2012 PSAC Baseball Championships, 7-3 from Pullman Park.

Shippensburg (32-19) won its second straight game to start a PSAC tournament for the first time since 2005 in defeating the nationally-ranked Lakers – a squad that the Raiders had not faced in 11 years. The Raiders had eight of their nine starters contribute at least one hit to the cause – with six men posting multiple hits in the contest.

SU will next play at 3:30 p.m. Friday against the winner of the Slippery Rock vs. West Chester contest scheduled for 9:30 a.m.  A victory on Friday would guarantee SU the chance to play for the conference championship, while a loss would require the Raiders to win multiple games on Saturday to emerge from the tournament victorious.

Umberger threw 118 pitches under the lights for his seventh complete game this season and the 12th of his Raider career. Thursday's effort was the first time that Umberger went nine innings in a game. He allowed just four hits over the final seven innings of the contest and recorded all eight of his strikeouts from the fifth inning on.

SU took the lead in the opening inning with an RBI-single off the bat of junior Simon Beloff but ultimately trailed 2-1 after the first frame when the Lakers collected two singles and benefitted from two SU errors to plate a pair of runs (one earned).

Mercyhurst (36-14) again threatened in the second inning by putting its first two hitters on base, but with one out, junior Tyler Basso atoned for a first-inning error by fielding a grounder on a hop and gunning a throw home that cut down Colin Loughner after a successful tag by junior catcher Tyler Shover.

After getting out of the second inning, Umberger truly settled down on the hill. He retired the 3-4-5 hitters of the Laker lineup on just five pitches in the third inning and faced just one batter over the minimum over the final four innings.

Save for a two-out RBI-double in the fifth inning off the bat of PSAC West Player of the Year Shane Latshaw, Umberger did not otherwise yield an extra-base hit. Perhaps his most impressive note is that he did not walk a batter and yielded just eight hits to a team ranked atop the PSAC in batting average, hits and runs scored.

The Raiders cranked out double-digit hits at the plate for the second straight contest and have tallied 24 total hits in two games thus far. On Thursday, SU scored six of its seven runs with two outs in an inning if one includes a sacrifice fly off the bat of junior Cody Kulp that came in the fifth inning which put the Raiders ahead 3-2.

Back in the fourth, senior designated hitter Jimmy Miller laced a 2-2 pitch into left field for a base hit that plated Kulp – who had led off the frame with a single and later stolen second base. Jimmy Miller also singled with two outs in the sixth, stole second base, and came home on an RBI-double into the right-center field gap off the bat off Basso.

The SU momentum was validated in the seventh inning with a three-run outburst – with the clutch hit being a two-out, two-run single off the bat of sophomore first baseman Pat Kregeloh on a 2-2 pitch.

With one out in the seventh, SU loaded the bases after freshman second baseman Jimmy Spanos was hit by a pitch, senior left fielder Eric Herman dropped in a perfect bunt that went for a single and Kulp hit a high-chop infield single over mobile infielders on a hit-and-run play.

During Beloff's at bat with the bases loaded, Aschley appeared to step forward off the pitching rubber and then back onto it after already having set himself up on the mound. A balk was called, plating one run for the Raiders, but Beloff struck out. Kregeloh, however, came through with the clutch hit – his 10th of the season with two outs and runners on – to put SU up by its decisive 7-3 margin.

Despite some early jitters in the field, the SU defense put forth a solid effort in the contest – turning two double players. Of particular note is the performance of Herman, a Division II Gold Glove award winner last season, whose hustle resulted in a pair of full-on diving catches in left field that saved extra bases on both occasions.

Aschley, an All-PSAC Western Division Second Team pick this season and an ABCA Third Team All-American a year ago, allowed seven earned runs on 12 hits in seven innings of work.