First Round
Edinboro 5, Shippensburg 4
Kutztown 4, Mansfield 3
Winners Bracket
Edinboro 2 Mansfield 1 (16 innings)
Losers Br,acket
Mansfield 6, Shippensburg 1
Mansfield 5, Kutztown 2
Championship Round
Edinboro 8, Mansfield 6 (11 innings)
EDINBORO CAPTURES PENNSYLVANIA CONFERENCE BASEBALL TITLE
Late-inning lightning enabled Edinboro to win the 1972 Pennsylvania Conference Baseball Championship Playoff last weekend (May 12-13) at Shippensburg, Pa.
Edinboro won its opening-round game in the ninth inning and then took a pair of marathon contests in 16 and 11 innings. The Fighting Scots had been conference runnerup last year to East Stroudsburg.
Mansfield finished second with Kutztown third and hose Shippensburg fourth. Ironically, it was the exact opposite of the regular-season finish in which Edinboro was fourth with the other teams following in order topped by Shippensburg.
In the championship round, Edinboro scored three runs in the 11th inning to upend Mansfield, 8-6. Freshman Roy Hogan slugged a bases-loaded double for all three runs.
The Fighting Scots has tied the game with two runs in the ninth on Roger Stubbe’s triple. Roy Stauffer broke an Edinboro record in the game with five straight hits.
In its opening game, Edinboro dumped Shippensburg, 5-4, after the Red Raiders has rallied from a 4-0 deficit with four runs in the eighth inning.
In the top of the ninth, Stubbe hit a two-out single, stole second base ans scored on Stauffer’s single. Keys in Shippensburg’s comeback rally were a triple by Bill Buffington and Mike Givler’s two-run single.
The most exciting game of the two-day playoff came in the winners’ bracket finals in which Edinboro outlasted Kutztown, 2-1, in 16 innings. The winning run came when Frank Basilone walked, was sacrificed to second and scored on a single by winning pitcher Roman Kozak.
Kozak put on an iron-man performance on the first day, hurling seven innings in the win over Shippensburg and then firing the last eight innings without allowing a run against Kutztown.
Bill Sandt worked all 16 innings for Kutztown in a gallant effort. He gave up seven hits, but kept the Fighting Scots hitless from the fifth through the 12th innings. The Bears nearly won the game in the 10th when they loaded the bases with none out, but a force play at home, a strikeout and a grounder ended the inning.
In the opening round, Kutztown edged Mansfield, 4-3, on the hurling of Robin Boughter and a run supplied by Win Cossaboon on a double and stolen base.
Mansfield came back with two victories to gain the championship round. The Mounties dumped Shippensburg, 6-1, on Bob Diliberto’s hitting and pitching, and edged Kutztown, 5-2 in a rematch.
Diliberto drove in four runs against Shippensburg with a double and a single with Terry Erway driving in another. Against Kutztown, Don Barnes spun a three-hitter and struck out 12 batters.
A total of more than 1,000 fans watched the playoffs on the two Shippensburg campus fields. Art Fairchild, Shippensburg coach, served as playoff director.