Seton Hill opened play in the 2023 NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional with a first round matchup with Shippensburg at the SHU Baseball Complex in Greensburg, PA.
The Griffins scored 14 runs in their first four at bats as they defeated the Raiders by a 14-6 score in the first round matchup. SHU improves to 45-10 overall and the Raiders fall to 27-25 on the season. Â
Shippensburg jumped on the Griffins with four runs in the top of the first inning. Seton Hill responded with seven runs in their half of the first inning.Â
Jack Whalen singled and moved to second on a
Vincenzo Rauso walk. Whalen stole third and scored on a balk.Â
Jack Oberdorf then homered over the tall wall in left field to cut the Raiders lead to 4-3.Â
Logan Vietmeier doubled while
Max Mandler and
Owen Sabol walked to load the bases.Â
Braden Durham drew a bases loaded walk to force in a run.Â
Joe Fiedor was hit by a pitch to force in another run and give SHU a 5-4 lead. Sabol scored on a double play ball and Whalen scored Durham to give SHU a 7-4 lead. Â
SHU added four more runs in the bottom of the second inning. Vietmeier walked and Mandler singled to put runners on first and second. Sabol moved both runners up with a sacrifice bunt. Durham walked to load the bases. Fiedor drew a bases loaded walk. Mandler scored on a
Noah Sweeney sacrifice fly. Both Fiedor and Durham stole and bag and both scored on errors on the play as SHU took a 11-4 lead. Â
Singles from Oberdorf, Vietmeier and Sabol increased the Griffins lead to 12-4 in the third inning. The Griffins took advantage of an error in the fourth inning as they pushed their lead to 14-4. Rauso had a single in the inning. Â
Shippensburg scored single runs in the sixth and seventh inning to cut the Griffins lead to 14-6.
Brandon Bergert earned his eighth win of the season. He went 6.1 innings and struck out seven.Â
Jack Laird threw 2.2 innings of scoreless relief. Â
Whalen, Rauso, Oberdorf and Vietmeier each added two hits for SHU. Oberdorf and Fiedor each added two RBIs.
The Griffins will take on the winner of the East Stroudsburg/Mercyhurst contest on Friday afternoon at 2:30 PM.Â