Greencastle-Antrim baseball holds off Shippensburg

The start of Wednesday's Mid Penn Colonial Division clash between Greencastle-Antrim and Shippensburg did not look good for the Blue Devils.

Back-to-back walks, and a laser hit to center field to load the bases in the first three at-bats was not the impression senior Noah Brown wanted to make on his first varsity start on the mound.

But thankfully for Greencastle, Brown settled into a competitive rhythm and the G-A defense followed suit to withstand a late Shippensburg comeback and claim their fourth straight in a 6-4 win at home.

Brown put forth a "gutsy" performance, bouncing back despite walking four batters in the first two innings. He went on to limit Shippensburg (0-2, 0-2 MPC) to two runs and struck out five in his five-inning outing.

"I told Noah, as bad as you pitched in those first two innings, you limited damage and you threw a pitch with purpose," Greencastle coach Eric Shaner said. "And because of that you only gave up two innings of one (run each) when it could have gotten really ugly with their meat coming up."

But the real spark for Greencastle (4-0, 2-0 MPC) was not the performance on the mound - but by Cade Bender simply "doing his job" in the No. 9 spot in the batting order. He knocked in four runs, including a two-RBI single perfectly hit to left. Jimmy Beavers also had an RBI.

"There was nothing exciting about what Cade did today," Shaner said. "He did the dirty work, put the bat on the ball and made them make a play. He did what he had to do, and there's something to be said about guys who aren't trying to get a hit in that situation, but just trying to do a job."

Greyhound starter Zach Barnhart had a strong five-inning outing, but could not keep Bender off balance. He struck out three and walked four. Ethan Stouffer relieved Barnhart in the sixth and threw beyond his sophomore status. He struck out four batters through two innings, allowed one earned run, and of 30 pitches, 21 were thrown for strikes.

Shippensburg coach Nate Rosenberry said, "I thought (Ethan) did a really nice job. He made some nice pitches there in the bottom of the sixth, and he did a nice job pounding the strike zone and gave us an opportunity."

Shippensburg's Colton Zeigler was 2-for-3, brought in one run and scored twice.

Tanner Rock closed out the game for Greencastle, throwing the final two innings. He struck out three and allowed one earned run.