MOC baseball

By David Williams
Published in Sports on February 16, 2004 2:01 PM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- Shippensburg College's baseball team drove seven hours for a weekend series with Mount Olive College.

On the way home, the Raiders may have contemplated what they accomplished -- a loss, 10 innings of baseball, and a very good view of a very wet Scarborough Field.

Mount Olive and Shippensburg spent most of the weekend watching it rain, ending a scheduled doubleheader on Saturday. The tarp was rolled off on Sunday and the two teams squared off again, with Mount Olive winning 7-4 in the first seven-inning contest. The second game went three and a half innings before rain arrived again. The weather radar held a gloomy forecast for the rest of the afternoon and the two teams went out in front of the wet tarp and exchanged handshakes to end the effort.

The second game did not go four and a half innings and was not official. While Shippensburg will not return to pick up the game, Mount Olive can schedule another game later in the year to make up for it.

"When they spend the kind of money they had to spend to come down here, you do all you can to play," said Mount Olive head coach Carl Lancaster. "They come down every year and they are a good team. I wish we could have gotten more in."

Mount Olive (5-2) picked up the win with a big inning, some key hits and four strong innings from pitcher Brian Corbett. The hard-throwing right-hander struck out seven and walked just one in four scoreless innings of relief of starter Ricky Duke.

Shippensburg got on the board first when Jared Krebs singled to right field with Chad Stecker on second in the opening inning. A fielding error scored Stecker for a 1-0 Raiders lead.

Matt Johnson's three-run home run to right was the centerpiece of Mount Olive's five-run response in the bottom of the inning. The blast to right field came after Allen Thomas' scoring off a wild pitch and Dan Smith's reaching home on a ground-ball fielders' choice from Nick Paniccia.

The Raiders answered with three straight hits, the final one a double down the left-field line by Brett Brobston that plated Josh Bell. Scott Kintz came in on a groundout later in the inning to get Shippensburg back to 5-3.

In the third, Josh Bell singled up the middle and the ball died in a mud puddle. As the defense chased the ball down, Andy Dangler came from second base to score and close the gap to just 5-4.

Mount Olive got some breathing room with Paniccia's solo home run to right field in the third inning for a 6-4 Trojan lead.

Smith's bases-loaded grounder in the sixth was booted, scoring Stephan Nordon to get another insurance run, but Corbett made sure it was not necessary, picking up his performance over his lost outing.

"Corbett was outstanding," said Lancaster. "He got over the hump with four innings - he only went three last time out."

Paniccia and Johnson both had a pair of hits for Mount Olive, while Josh Bell and Brobston had a pair of hits for the Raiders.

The Trojans will travel to Wingate University on Wednesday before traveling to Pfeiffer for a weekend series that opens the Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Association schedule.

Shippensburg 121 000 0 -- 4 8 1

Mount Olive 501 001 x -- 7 8 0

Leading hitters -- Shippensburg -- Josh Bell 2-3, RBI; Brett Brobston 2-3, double. Mount Olive -- Nick Paniccia 2-3, home run, RBI; Matt Johnson 2-3, home run, 3 RBI. E-Smith, Brobston.

IP H R ER BB SO

Shippensburg

McClintock (L) 3 5 6 5 3 2

Dicken 3 3 1 1 1 1

Mount Olive

Duke (W) 3 7 4 4 0 0

Corbett (S) 4 1 0 0 1 7

WP-McClintock. HBP -- Parrish (by McClintock), Krebs (by Corbett), Fly (by Dicken). PB-Dangler 2.