Brian Markley
Associate Sports Editor

The Marauders returned home to The Coop on Sunday, March 1 to face Goldey-Beacom, who they had just played a double-header against the day before. Millersville hosted two more, making for a total of four games against Goldey-Beacom in two days. 

Junior pitcher Jeff Taylor took the mound, coming off of a strong start the last time he took the bump against Nyack College, and he looked to continue that against Goldey-Beacom. 

The Marauders backed Taylor a quick lead in the bottom of the second inning when senior outfielder Manning Brookens drove in a run.. Millersville would make the inning a big one, tacking on four more runs giving the Marauders a 5-0 lead early, the fifth run coming from sophomore Corey Woodcock stealing home. 

Goldey-Beacom would answer with a run of their own with a solo home run off the bat of Tevin Thomas to get Goldey-Beacom on the board.

The Marauders would respond with another big inning, plating four runs in the home half of the fourth inning. Woodcock scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Eric Callahan. Jimmy Losh then tripled down the right field line, scoring two. Losh then scored on a wild pitch, giving Millersville a dominating lead of 9-1. 

Taylor finished the day with five innings pitched, allowing only one run and three hits and striking out three batters. He continues to have quality outings for Millersville, and he is quickly adapting to his new home at Millersville. 

A tenth Millersville run would score when freshman outfielder Chase Simmons drove in a run in the bottom of the sixth inning. The Marauder bullpen would come in and close out game one, not allowing a hit for the last two innings of the game, securing a 10-1 win.

Game two featured another dominant pitching performance, this time from sophomore pitcher Alex Mykut. 

Game two was scoreless in the early stages. Mykut was untouchable, and the Marauders offense came alive in the fourth inning to back his performance. Jimmy Cain got the big inning started with a single to right field, scoring Losh. Woodcock would sky a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Luke Trainer. 

Nick Mancuso would come through with the big hit of the inning, driving a double that would score Darin Miller and Jimmy Cain. The Marauders weren’t done yet, as Eric Callahan drove Mancuso in on a base hit, giving Mykut and Millersville a 5-0 lead.

A sixth run would be scored in the fifth inning off of a Darin Miller single to right, increasing the Marauder lead to six. 

A six-run lead was more than enough for Mykut, who was sensational on the day. Mykut finished with six innings pitched, allowing only one hit and one walk, along with striking out 11 Goldey-Beacom batters.

“He’s got really good rhythm and great mound presence, which is something that’s changed from last year. He’s maturing very well. He threw a lot of strikes and got ahead of a lot of hitters. He gets a lot of swings and misses; his stuff is hard to make contact with,” coach Shehan said about Mykut’s performance on the mound. 

Millersville improved to 10-3 on the season. The Marauders have a busy week ahead of them, playing five games at Cooper Park. 

“This week is big. We saved five or six really good bullpen arms and some of our stoppers didn’t even throw this weekend. We love the fact we’re playing midweek. Kris Pirozzi’s looked so much better and has thrown 75-80% strikes and Ben Wilchacky has been as advertised with his work midweek and his last outing. We’re looking forward to seeing those two start and take the next step and the bullpen’s ready to rock and roll. We like playing midweek because of the depth of our staff. The more that we can play the better off we’re going to be. We have the arms to do it, and getting more at-bats for our hitters is never bad from a consistency standpoint,” coach Shehan said.

The Marauders have two games against Felician University on Tuesday March 3, and then they play three against Le Moyne, a doubleheader on Saturday, March 7 and one on Sunday, March 8.