Pitt-Johnstown dug itself an early hole that proved to be inescapable in a narrow 8-7 setback to Shippensburg in a non-divisional contest on Tuesday afternoon at Point Stadium.

The Mountain Cats are now 13-18 overall (4-8 PSAC West). The Raiders improved to 17-15 overall and own a 10-10 record in the PSAC East.

A steady string of timely hitting led to six combined runs between the fifth and seventh innings and nearly allowed the Mountain Cats to bounce back from what was once a six-run deficit.

Erik Rhodes helped the Mountain Cats scratch the scoreboard in the third when he reached on a bunt single. He moved to second after Alex Glumac was hit by a pitch, went to third when Josh Ulery reached on a fielding error and eventually scored on a bases-loaded two-out walk by Justin Turcovski. 

Shippensburg still led 5-1, though, and increased that advantage to 7-1 by notching a pair of runs in its half of the fourth after recording three hits and taking full advantage of two errors.

Ulery's RBI base-hit capped off a string of three consecutive singles to open the fifth. He and Glumac later pulled off a rare double steal with two outs, and both came around to score on Josh Reynolds' two-RBI double to left that made it 7-4.

After Shippensburg responded with a run in the sixth, another RBI single from Ulery scored Rhodes in the bottom of the inning to make it a three-run game again. Reliever Brody Roberts worked out of trouble in the seventh to keep it that way.

Turcovski and Ebeling walked to lead off the seventh to set up Cam Donaldson's RBI single that trimmed the deficit to 8-6. Back-to-back balks by the Raiders allowed Ebeling to trot home and cut it to 8-7. But the only base runner the Mountain Cats had over the final two innings was Turcovski, who was hit by a pitch and stole second before being left stranded in the eighth.

Seven different pitchers—Jared Hoener, Taylor Squiric, Ethan Kaminsky, Antonio Caporossi, Roberts, Zach Slis and Zach Myers—took the mound for the Mountain Cats. Hoener, who started and gave up three runs on five hits with two strikeouts in two innings of work, was charged with the loss. Ray Winter threw 1.1 innings in relief and earned the win for the Raiders.

Pitt-Johnstown will open a four-game weekend series on the road against Clarion with a doubleheader on Friday beginning at 1 p.m. before returning to Point Stadium for another twin bill on Saturday starting at the same time.