Ship drops opener to Mechanicsburg in 10

SHIPPENSBURG - Tuesday's beautiful weather seemed like a good omen for the Shippensburg baseball team, which played Mechanicsburg in a non-league game in its home opener.

But soon, the wind picked up and the air got chilly, and the Greyhounds found themselves in trouble against a resilient Wildcat team.

Despite scoring the game-tying run in the bottom of the seventh with two outs to send it into extra innings, a pair of errors troubled the Greyhounds and Shippensburg (0-1) fell to the Wildcats 6-5 in 10 innings.

Colton Zeigler walked to start the bottom of the seventh with his team trailing 5-4, then Mechanicsburg (2-0) retired the next two batters easily. But Adam Fodness, who had a solid outing for the Wildcats, was called for a balk to advance Zeigler to second with Matt Frick batting.

Frick sliced a hit into right field to bring Zeigler home before getting tagged at second base to end the inning and send the game into extra time.

"Our kids battled and our kids battled. We were down to our last strike, so I'm proud of them," Shippensburg coach Nate Rosenberry said. "It really shows the character of our kids."

"It was great for us to really show how we can work as a team and battle back, but we just couldn't finish at the end," Shippensburg centerfielder Cole Friese said.

After two scoreless extra innings, Mechanicsburg's Eric Herbein scored an unearned run after being hit by a pitch and making his way home on two Shippensburg errors for the eventual game-winning run in the top of the 10th.

The Greyhounds committed six errors.

"They took advantage of our mistakes today and that cost us," Rosenberry said. "They made us pay every time we made a mistake."

Fodness threw 6 2/3 innings with four strikeouts and four walks, and allowed one earned run on three hits.

Teagan Staver received the loss for Shippensburg, but had a productive night at the plate, going 2-for-4 with two RBIs in the third inning. He threw four innings for the Greyhounds, striking out five with one walk. He allowed two hits and one unearned run.