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`The Marauders built themselves a four game cushion over East Stroudsburg for the fourth and final playoff spot on Friday, but that cushion was deflated just as quickly as it was established after they dropped two games the following day.
After going 11 days without playing in a game, Millersville hosted East Stroudsburg on Friday for a doubleheader and traveled to the Warriors’ home field the following day for two more games.
Sophomore Derek Kline put on a show at the plate for the Marauder fans, going six for eight with four RBIs, three runs and a home run for the day. Kline and teammate senior Cody Wile provided Millersville with all the offense it would need in the first game as each belted two-run home runs in the first inning to provide freshman pitcher Kyle Belanchik with a healthy lead for the remainder of the game.
The four runs in the first proved to be plenty as Belanchik threw a complete game shutout and allowed only five hits and one walk while striking out four batters.
Millersville tacked on one more insurance run in the fifth, and the game ended with the Marauders on top 5-0.
Millersville continued its strong play of the day in the following game as it defeated the Warriors 9-6. Kline had his second three hit performance on the day and drove in two more runs, but he also had the help of the other Marauder bats in the lineup as Millersville hit their way to a victory.
Freshman Adam Boyd went three for four as well and scored three runs. Sophomore Ryan McCormick also scored three times and the team tallied 12 hits leading to the nine runs.
Freshman Jason Long pitched four and a third innings and yielded three runs while striking out five.
The bullpen struggled a bit in relief for Long giving up three runs in one and a third innings following his exit, but senior Andrew Clemens came in to shut the door for the final inning and a third.
“Our guys are young. We definitely need to score runs to win, but they’ve [the bullpen] been doing a pretty good job,” Senior
Clemens did not allow any hits or runs and picked up his second save of the year.