The Shippensburg University softball team began their season with a non-conference doubleheader split at Seton Hill University. The Raiders took Game 1 8-5 but the Griffins won Game 2 with a 3-2 score.
The first game of the series was built on patience, as the two teams combined for 291 pitches and 11 walks. At the plate in Game 1, SU drew 10 full counts and reached base on eight of those at-bats.
The first run of the season was anticlimactically driven in on a walk with the bases loaded from freshman Taylor Myers in the second inning.
The Raiders scored four runs with two outs in Game 1, including two in the third inning. In the bottom of the fourth inning, freshman Emma Flattery made her collegiate pitching debut and struck out her first collegiate batter on three pitches to end the inning.
With one out in the fourth inning the bases found themselves loaded again for sophomore Hannah Marsteller who broke the game open with a grand slam.
Ship led 8-2 in the game but the tying run got to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning for Seton Hill. Sophomore Tressa Kagarise was up for the challenge though and closed the door on the Griffins with her 10th strikeout of the game.
SU took a 2-1 lead into the fourth inning in Game 2 after a solo home run from Marsteller and an RBI-triple from freshman Bridget Sharkey.
In the bottom of the fourth, however, the Griffins got an RBI-triple of their own to tie it and what would end up being the game winning run scored in the same inning on a wild pitch. Freshman Maelynn Leber made her collegiate debut in the game and threw a complete game in the loss.
Each team had six extra base hits in the series and five Raiders had multiple hits in the series. Taylor Radziewicz and Alyssa Nehlen each recorded three hits in the series.
Marsteller matched her home run total from last years shortened season in just one day and finished with five RBIs and two walks.
The Raiders will hold their home opener this Friday at 2 p.m. against Bloomsburg in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Eastern Division opener.
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