SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – The Shippensburg University softball team swept East Stroudsburg in its home regular-season finale doubleheader on Sunday afternoon from Robb Field, 5-2 and 6-3, as the wins on the final day of the regular season helped the Raiders claim the PSAC East No. 3 seed in next week's PSAC Championships held at Veterans Park in Quakertown, Pa.
 
The double elimination eight-team tournament begins on Thursday, as the Raiders (31-13, 17-11 PSAC East) will play PSAC West No. 2 seed IUP (29-13, 22-6 PSAC West) at 1:30 p.m. The winner will advance to play the winner of East No. 1 seed West Chester and the West No. 4 seed (yet to be determined) at 6:30 that night, while the loser will enter the consolation bracket and play the loser of West Chester/West No. 4, also at 6:30 that night.
 
More information on the three-day conference tournament will be made available on shipraiders.com early this upcoming week.
 
Shippensburg totaled 19 hits on Saturday and took the season series vs. East Stroudsburg (14-29, 9-19), 3-1, to finish conference play one game short of East No. 2 seed Bloomsburg (18-10) and two games short of the Golden Rams (19-9). The 31 overall wins match SU's total last season, marking the second time in the last seven seasons that the Raiders have hit the 30-win mark.
 
Senior Emily Estep earned the complete-game victory in the opener to improve to 20-2 in 2014 and become SU's first 20-win pitcher since Kelley Tiesi won 25 games in 2006. Estep gave up two runs on six hits with seven strikeouts on Saturday – giving her a career-best 158 on the season – on a hefty workload of 158 pitches.
 
Junior Makenzie Lynn pitched 4.1 innings of scoreless relief in Game 2 to earn the victory while surrendering two hits and striking out three.
 
Sophomore right fielder Taylor Pattillo batted 4-for-7 on the day while a quartet of Raiders each drove in a pair of runs: sophomore shortstop/third baseman Briana Giovenco, senior second baseman Rachel Shumway, junior first baseman Maddie Justice and junior designated player Jessie Trammell.
 
Senior left fielder Hilary Lyons stole a pair of bases on Saturday to bring her PSAC-leading season total to 28 and career total to 52 – tying her with Jill Mullan (2008-11) for second-most in school history. Lyons enters the postseason three stolen bases shy of tying junior teammate Tyler Thompson's single-season school record of 31 set last season.
 
Giovenco opened the day's scoring with a first-inning leadoff home run down the left-field line for her third jack of the season, fourth of her career and first in the friendly confines of Robb Field. Thompson led off the fourth inning swinging on the first pitch and connected on a triple deep to right-center. With Thompson easily advancing to third, the ESU center fielder threw home on target but the ball got away from the catcher, allowing Thompson to race in for a 2-0 Raider lead.
 
Shippensburg added another solo run in the next inning with a Justice RBI double down the left-field line. SU loaded the bases with one out in the sixth when Giovenco walked in a run and Justice drove in another with a single to shortstop with two outs.
 
In Game 2, SU answered an ESU run in the first with two runs in the second on a run aided by a fielding error after a Trammell double down the left-field line and a Shumway infield RBI single two batters later.
 
The Warriors added two runs in the third to re-take a 3-2 lead but Shippensburg tacked on two in both the fourth and fifth to grab control, including a Shumway full-count RBI groundout and a Trammell first-pitch RBI single up the middle.