While most of the school was home enjoying a week free of school The Shepherd baseball team was hard at work. In their first home series of the season on Tuesday, March 15, Shepherd swept the University of Pittsburg Johnstown Mountain Cats. Saturday, March 19, the Rams added another win when they split against the Glenville State University Pioneers in their first Mountain East Conference game of the season.
In game one against the University of Pitt Johnstown, Shepherd struck first in the second inning when Sam Crater scored on a RBI single by Jacob Carney. The Rams added two to take a 3-0 at the end of the third inning. The Mountain Cats took control of the game over the next three innings taking a 7-6 lead into the seventh and final inning. Chase Hoffman wasted no time tying the game in the bottom half of the seventh hitting a solo home run to tie the game at 7 giving the Rams a chance to win in walk-off fashion. With 2 outs in the inning JJ Satry singled to left field to score Darius Jones and complete the rally giving the Rams an 8-7 victory in game one.
Brandon Kirk led the Rams at the plate going 2 for 4 with 3 RBI’s in the victory. Sam Crater earned the win on the mound for Shepherd giving him his first win of the season.
In game two of the series the Rams dominated Pitt Johnstown with an impressive performance at the plate and on the mound allowing only 4 hits while ripping 11 hits of their own. The Mountain Cats took a 2-0 lead in the first inning, but a 4 run bottom half of the first for the Rams gave them an early lead that Pitt Johnstown would never recover from. Shepherd piled on the runs scoring multiple runs in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings on their way to a dominant 11-4 victory.
Jamie Driver earned the win for the Rams bringing his record to 3-1 on the season. Sarty led the Rams at the Plate going 3-3 with 2 RBI’s in the victory.
In game one of a double header against Glenville State the Rams looked to have hot bats scoring 3 runs in the first inning, but for the rest of the game the Rams managed only 3 hits. Glenville State took advantage and went on to score 9 runs in a 9-5 lose for Shepherd.
Driver’s record fell to 3-2 in the defeat
In the night finale against the Pioneers Shepherd could not be stopped early scoring all 10 runs in the first three innings including a grand slam in the first inning by Tre Porter and home runs by Sarty, Daniel Heleine, and Christian Hamel. The pioneers scored 4 runs late but the deficit was too steep as Shepherd held on for the 10-6 victory.
John Bently earned the Win for Shepherd, while Porter led the Rams at the plate going 2-5 with 4 RBI’s.