The Shippensburg University softball team used a 12-hit offensive attack at the plate and a complete game two-hitter in the circle from senior Emily Estep to win the first game of its Wednesday afternoon doubleheader at PSAC East rival Bloomsburg, securing its first regular-season series victory over the Huskies in nine years.
 
Shippensburg (27-11, 13-9 PSAC East) won the opener, 5-1, scoring all five of its runs with two outs, while Bloomsburg (20-13, 12-8) was victorious in the nightcap, 11-1 in five innings. Both teams remain locked in the battle for second place in the PSAC East, sitting behind first-place West Chester (31-16, 16-8) but two games ahead of fourth-place Mansfield (19-13, 11-11).
 
Estep yielded a walk and an RBI-single in the second inning of the opener but responded by retiring 11 in a row. SU's senior pitcher retired 16 of the final 17 batters she faced, allowing a lone single with one out in the sixth, to improve her record to 17-1 with a seven-strikeout performance.
 
Sophomore Briana Giovenco drew a leadoff walk to start Game 1 and came around to score after a sacrifice bunt by senior Hilary Lyons and a two-out, RBI-single by sophomore Taylor Pattillo.
 
Pattillo was 3-for-4 in the opener and scored twice on hits by junior Jessie Trammell, who singled home Pattillo in the third and doubled her home in the fifth.
 
SU added two more runs in the seventh, as junior Taylor Weisman deposited her seventh home run of the year over the right-center field fence and senior Kirstin McClune singled home Trammell.
 
The Raiders took a 1-0 lead after the first inning of Game 2 but could not stave off the Huskies at the plate. Junior Liz Parkins took the loss in the circle while sophomore Courtney Kane made her collegiate pitching debut in relief.
 
Overall, McClune was 3-for-6 with her RBI and a pair of stolen bases. Junior Tyler Thompson was 2-for-5 with a double and a stolen base. Parkins and Weisman also finished the day with multiple hits.
 
Over the last 14 games, Thompson is pacing the Raiders with a .459 batting average (17-for-37) with five stolen bases and seven runs. Trammell, whose 10-game hitting streak came to an end in Game 2, is batting .436 (17-for-39) in the same span with 11 RBIs and a .500 on-base percentage.
 
Shippensburg won three of its four meetings with Bloomsburg this season, marking its most victories over BU in a single season since 2006. The Raiders split the 2006 and 2007 regular-season series. SU had lost seven of its last eight meetings with the Huskies entering the 2014 campaign.