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Shepherd vs. Manfield doubleheader highlighted by Gustofson’s pitching gem

By Bob Madison - For the Chronicle | Mar 29, 2024

Lewis

SHEPHERDSTOWN — With the afternoon sun playing hide-and-seek with the high, thin clouds, Mansfield University of Pennsylvania pitcher Eric Gustofson appeared to be playing the same hide-and-seek game with the Shepherd University batsmen.

After the host Rams had posted a 5-4 win in the opener of a PSAC doubleheader, Gustofson gave the Mountaineers a dominating pitching performance in the chilly nightcap.

The stylish left-hander struck out 15 in a seven-inning game, scything through the Ram lineup in overpowering fashion. The Mountaineers rallied for a 7-1 win with a prosperous last-inning uprising that gave them a split of Saturday’s two conference games.

An after-game recount of Gustofson’s season shows him with a staggering 44 strikeouts in only 24.2 innings of work. So distant is Mansfield’s offense that the victory was just his first of the season against three previous losses.

Gustofson struck out the side in the first, second and seventh innings. After Shepherd had tied the nightcap at 1-1 on a strikeout where the batter reached safely on a wild pitch third-strike and a then wide pickoff throw, the Mountaineers scored six times in the definitive top of the seventh.

Quintana

Gustofson doled out only three hits to the Rams. Eight of the nine different batters he saw struck out at least once.

Shepherd right-hander Daniel Quintana had Shepherd on the heels of Mansfield by going five innings and allowing only one run and four hits, but was lifted in a 1-1 game. After Shepherd’s run in the sixth, the Mountaineers used a four-hit, two-walk inning to plate the deciding runs. Jackson Halla capped the scoring with his two-run home run.

In the day’s first game, Shepherd grabbed a 3-0 lead in the third, with hits from Greg Borges and Collin Snyder, as well as two walks. Snyder drove in two runs. Later, leading 4-2, the Rams got a run off Washington High School grad Luke Payne in his one inning and could survive a two-run rally in Manfield’s seventh, when Zach Shertzer drilled a two-run homer off reliever Brenden Lewis.

The Rams (who were 1-5 in the PSAC and 6-12 overall when Mansfield journeyed back to northwest Pennsylvania) will return to Fairfax Field tomorrow for an afternoon doubleheader against conference rival Shippensburg University.

Snyder

Borges