Portsmouth, Ohio – Shawnee State baseball opened their final home stand of the season flat on Friday afternoon, falling to #25 Cumberlands (Ky.) 12-0 in seven innings.
After a quiet first inning, Cumberlands would hit Shawnee State starting pitcher Derek Moore (SR/Wheelersburg, Ohio) for six runs in the second. Andrew Ramos would lead off the inning with a double, and pinch runner Britton Elmore would score on a two-run home run by Bryan Benz. Guillermo Villegas would single, be moved to second with a bunt, and reach third on a single by Kevin Pantoja. Jesse Reyes would bunt and reach on a single to drive in Villegas. Reed Spata would then hit a chopper to second base that Sam Gerhold (JR/Shelton, Washington) misplayed, and with the bases loaded Chase Schmittou would hit a two-run double to make the lead 5-0. Ramos would then get his second hit of the inning, an RBI single to end the scoring.
Shawnee State's bats would remain cold, and Cumberlands would take advantage of defensive mishaps to score four more runs in the fifth. Guillermo Villegas would hit a one-out single, and would reach third on an error by Blake Marshall (SO/Lexington, Ky.), who misplayed a grounder by Kevin Pantoja. Jesse Reyes would drive in Villegas with his own single, and Reed Spata would then drive in Pantoja with another single. Chase Schmittou and Landon Bryan would then get back-to-back hits to drive in two more runs.
Two more Shawnee State errors would lead to two more Cumberlands runs in the sixth. Bryan Benz would lead off the inning with a pop-up near the pitcher's mound, but Nick Rose (SO/Olentangy, Ohio) would drop the pop-up to allow Benz to reach first. Rose would commit his second error the inning one batter later, making a wild throw to first to allow Guillermo Villegas to reach base. Roberto Prado would drive both Benz and Villegas in with a single to put the final margin at 12-0.
Noah Gapp would throw a complete game shutout, allowing no runs on four hits and striking out six to earn the win. Derek Moore would allow 10 runs on 16 hits, with only five of the runs being earned, in four innings to take the loss.
The loss drops Shawnee State's record to 11-29, and are 4-9 in the Mid-South Conference. Cumberlands improves to 34-11 and 10-3 in the league.
Shawnee State conclude their home schedule with Senior Day on Saturday afternoon, hosting Cumberlands for two more games. First pitch of game one is set for 12:00pm with the Senior Day ceremony to take place between games.
