QUAKERTOWN, Pa. – Two outs away from winning its first conference crown since 2005, the Shippensburg University softball team fell victim to a two-run walk-off home run for a 5-4 loss in its first game against No. 12 California (Pa.) on Saturday afternoon before dropping the decisive winner-take-all PSAC Championship Game, 4-3, in a pair of tightly contested title games on the final day of the PSAC Championships from Veterans Park in Quakertown, Pa.
 
The Raiders (34-15) will await its seed in the NCAA Division II Tournament as the selection show will air live on NCAA.com on Monday at 11 a.m. The NCAA Atlantic Region Tournament will be held May 9-11 with Super Regionals held the following weekend (May 16-17).
 
Shippensburg continued its power hitting on Saturday with three more home runs, including back-to-back leadoff shots from sophomore second baseman Taylor Pattillo and junior shortstop Taylor Weisman in the fourth inning of SU's first game to turn a one-run lead into a 4-1 margin. The duo hit back-to-back blasts in the fourth inning against the Vulcans (35-5) for the second consecutive game and combined for nine home runs in the first four games of the tournament (Pattillo five, Weisman four).
 
Weisman's first-pitch solo shot was her 12^th of the season and tied the single-season school record for home runs with Nicole Henninger (2007). With nine home runs in 2014, Pattillo is now tied for fourth in single-season school annals with Kim Bedford (1987) and Andrea Heck (1997).
 
Junior designated player Jessie Trammell hit her first home run of the season to lead off the second inning of the second game and put the Raiders ahead 2-1. Shippensburg finished the week with 11 round-trippers in five games after having hit 20 in its first 44 games of the season.
 
California erased the 4-1 SU lead in the first game with a pair of runs in the fourth before first baseman Lindsay Reicoff's one-out homer on a 2-2 pitch gave Cal its first and only lead of the game in walk-off fashion and force a second game for the title.
 
SU scored runs in each of the first two innings of the second game (Pattillo recorded an RBI in the first inning), but the Vulcans scored once in the first and two in the third to take a 3-2 lead through four innings. Senior catcher Kirstin McClune doubled to left with one out in the fifth and advanced to third on a passed ball before play was delayed for an hour due to lightning. After play resumed, senior left fielder Hilary Lyons plated McClune for the tying run with a two-out RBI infield single to shortstop.
 
Cal catcher and leadoff hitter Natalie Wideman homered to lead off the bottom of the sixth for the eventual tournament-winning run, earning her PSAC Championship MVP honors.
 
After going 3-0 in SU's first three games of the week, senior Emily Estep suffered her first loss of the tournament with six strikeouts in 6.1 innings in the first game to fall to 23-3. It was Estep's fourth complete game in three days as she finished the week with a 2.05 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 27.1 innings.
 
Junior Makenzie Lynn started the second game and struck out five while stranding nine total Cal runners through her first five innings of work. Junior Liz Parkins – who led the team on the week with a .429 average on 6-of-14 batting after going 3-for-3 in Saturday's first game – moved from third base to pitcher and recorded the final three outs of the sixth.
 
The Raiders rallied in the top of the seventh with singles off the bats of sophomore right fielder Briana Giovenco and junior first baseman Maddie Justice, but coulud not plate a tying run.