Carter

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Finally finding a weekend date where the weather allowed it to play conference games, had homestanding Shepherd University avoiding enough of the offense and scattered positive baseball shown to it by Mansfield, as the Rams took a pair of one-run verdicts in a doubleheader sweep of the visiting Mountaineers.

On Saturday at long-used Fairfax Field, the Rams used the 9-8 and 4-3 wins over Mansfield to improve their early PSAC East Division record to 3-1 and leave the struggling Mountaineers with an 0-4 league mark.

Home runs by Andrew Edwards, a no-doubt-about-it grand slam that easily cleared the bullpen beyond the left field fence, then Connor Dewees (a sky-scrapping three-run blast) and Idris Carter’s solo shot mostly carried the early afternoon for the take-advantage-of everything-Rams in the lengthy opener.

An eight-run inning was enough to trump anything offered by Mansfield.

Shepherd had a 9-4 lead after its multi-splash inning and could finally hold off Mansfield’s late-game scoring to win.

Dewees

Nate Mikulski had a scoreless last inning in relief to earn a save.

Leaving the bases loaded in the fifth inning of the seven inning game as well as seeing Shepherd steal four bases and have their pitchers walk six men and hit a batter were enough shortcomings to be stung by a one-run loss for the Mountaineers.

Cole Daugherty had Shepherd’s only home run in the one-run win nightcap, but the Ram relief pitchers — Brenden Lewis and Nate Hodgkinson — did not allow any runs in innings four through nine.

Mansfield often threatened but stranded 10 base runners to fall short in another Shepherd one-run win.

The Rams managed just five hits, but found additional runners when Mountaineer pitchers walked three others and the defense committed four errors.

Edwards

The nice crowd bundled against the manageable but non-stop wind saw the Rams improve to 13-6 overall and then get ready for East Division contender East Stroudsburg this past Monday at Fairfax Field. PSAC rival Bloomsburg is scheduled to appear at Fairfax this afternoon at 2 p.m. as the conference schedule remains in full swing for the Rams.

Daugherty

Mikulski