TodayStar Struck
Shippensburg downs Newville 5-1, fails to land final playoff spot
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Karissa Zimmer/The Sentinel
Shippensburg's Vinny Reed can't beat the throw to first as Newville first baseman Cory Davidson watches the ball.
Karissa Zimmer/The Sentinel
Newville Dan Bream delivers to the mound in Thursday's game
Karissa Zimmer/The Sentinel
Stars pitcher Andrew Burke helped lead Shippensburg past Newville on Thursday
SHIPPENSBURG — Coming into Thursday night’s West Shore Twilight Baseball League against Newville, it would have been easy for the Shippensburg Stars to mail it in — they were outside of the WSTBL playoff picture looking in.
Even with a win and a Loysville loss, Shippensburg couldn’t move into the eighth spot due to losing two of three games to Loysville this year. Both teams finished with 30 points.
Instead, the Stars (14-17-2) played what had to be one of their better games of the season and beat rival Newville, 5-1, behind the pitching of ace Andrew Burke. After giving up a first-inning run to the Cardinals, Burke didn’t allow a run or hit the rest of the way.
“That is the best game Burke has pitched all year,” Ship manager Whitey Caroll said. “He kept guys off base and the defense made no mistakes on the field.”
Newville (16-13-2) started the game with a little promise. After a groundout to start the game, Lance Miller doubled into the right-centerfield gap. He then came around and scored on an RBI single by Lew Reese.
That was pretty much it for the Cardinals as Burke went to work striking out nine and baffling the Newville hitters with a live fastball and some nasty off-speed pitches. The only other major threat came in the third inning when Newville put two runners on via error and hit batter. Burke used a pair of strikeouts to escape the inning.
“I had great command of my changeup which really makes the fastball seem faster,” Burke said. “They are a good fastball hitting team, so it is important to keep it off the middle of the plate.”
The offense all came in two innings for the Stars off Newville starter Dan Bream. The Stars batted around in the second inning, scoring four runs on three hits and three walks. The hits, all singles, were delivered by Rick Shumway, Cody Reed, and Kenny Messinger.
“It’s nice to get a win in here at the end of the season,” Shumway said. “We were surprisingly bad at times this year because this is a really good team.”
The last run for the Stars came in the fifth on singles by Cody Reed and Kyle Helm. Reed scored on an error off the bat of Kenny Messinger.
“We have known all year that this is a solid team,” Caroll said. “We are capable of playing with anyone in this league. We just didn’t get some breaks and we need to be a little more committed to this team.”
Newville will end its season tonight against Enola at home in a game that will go a long way in telling if the Cardinals are a No. 5 seed or a No. 6 seed.
