Greaney

The Marauders were the team that was more pitcher-rich and had also run their way to a doubleheader sweep at home. They had stolen a total of 10 bases in topping the Rams, 5-2 and 11-2, in both teams’ first dips into PSAC league play.

In the glooming as darkness neared on Saturday, Millersville had made Shepherd’s weekend one of four straight losses after securing wins of 6-3 and 7-6 (in eight innings) in the PSAC East Division games.

Millersville’s starting pitchers were in control of Shepherd’s lineup in their innings in both games — limiting the Rams to five hits in the opener and then three hits in the nightcap, as starter Garet Blankenbiller went five innings and left with a 5-0 lead, before the once-dormant Rams erupted for six runs against Millersville relievers.

Millersville crowded into its vans as darkness loomed, leaving Shepherdstown with a 4-0 PSAC record and 18-3 overall mark, while the Rams were 0-4 in the conference and 12-12 overall.

Jones

It had been a Jimmy Kirk three-run home run that had settled the first game, as the Marauders had at least one hit in all seven of their offensive innings. Alex Kuehn had thrown strikes, never walking a batter in his five-inning stint, and gave way to Evan Rishell, who retired all six of the Rams he saw in earning a save.

Ethan Jones had two hits for the Rams.

Kuehn and Rishell combined to strike out eight Shepherd batters.

The nightcap moved quietly along in mostly routine fashion, until the Shepherd sixth, with the Marauders claiming a 5-0 lead behind starting pitcher Blankenbiller. An early three-run inning and then later a two-run inning had Millersville in front, 5-0, as Shepherd batted in the sixth against reliever Matt Shamany.

Shamany proved to be no mystery to the Rams, as he allowed four of the five men he faced to reach base. Gavin Lill replaced the ineffective Shamany and was hammered for doubles by Aidan Greaney and Ethan Burgreen, in the midst of a six-run inning that had propelled the Rams into a 6-5 lead. The turnaround inning had Millersville relievers issuing five walks and also hitting a batter.

Burgreen

In a matter of 12 batters in its sixth inning, Shepherd had fully recovered and taken a 6-5 lead to the top of the seventh.

The game tied at 6-6 in the seventh, when Matthew Williams singled and eventually scored on an infield error.

Shepherd could not score in its half of the seventh and the game rode into the eighth, where a hit batsman, walk and infield error on an attempted sacrifice bunt finally allowed Sam Morris’ shallow fly out to right to score the game-winning run.

The Rams managed a total of seven hits in the loss. Greaney had two of those hits. The Rams struck out 13 times in their eight turns.

Conference play had begun, and with the exception of two midweek non-conference games, will continue until May 2, when the Rams close at Bloomsburg.