SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – The Shippensburg University softball team notched its first home doubleheader sweep of the season on Wednesday and did so in exciting fashion, notching a 2-1 opening win over visiting IUP before scoring three runs in the 10th inning of Game 2 for a walk-off, 6-5 victory over the Crimson Hawks from Robb Field.
 
Shippensburg (14-21) and IUP (19-15) had an old-fashioned pitcher's duel in Game 1, as freshman Taryn Wilson improved to 6-3 on the season by allowing a run on five hits with five strikeouts in a 98-pitch complete game. IUP's Lauren Zola, the reigning Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Central Division Pitcher of the Week, gave up just three hits in six innings while striking out nine.
 
The difference in Game 1 was a two-out, full-count, two-run home run in the first inning off the bat of senior Taylor Pattillo that scored sophomore Tara Bicko and gave SU a 2-0 lead. Bicko led off the first with a single and later singled in the fifth for the only other Raider hits of the game.
 
Wilson's only significant trouble of Game 1 came in the fifth inning. The Crimson Hawks dinged and dented their way to a run and had women on first and second base before senior Briana Giovenco caught a lined shot at shortstop that resulted in a double play. Wilson retired the final eight batters she faced to record her sixth complete game of the season.
 
Shippensburg trailed 3-1 in the seventh inning of Game 2 and were just two outs away from a loss and a doubleheader split, having been held to just one hit at that point (an RBI-triple in the first by sophomore pitcher Chloe Collins).
 
Sophomore Eryn Caragein began the seventh-inning rally by depositing a full-count pitch over the left-center field fence for her fifth home run of the season, making it 3-2 in IUP's favor. After a groundout, freshman Megan Hevey and Wilson (the designated player in Game 2) hit singles into the outfield to put two runners on base. Freshman Sarah Mundell replaced Hevey at second base, and freshman Courtney Cochran flexed in for Wilson at first base.
 
Bicko came to the plate, and eventually worked a full count. She sent the sixth pitch of her at-bat into left field for an opposite-field single that plated Mundell and tied the game at 3-3. A fielder's choice sent the game into extra innings.
 
After neither team scored in the eighth or ninth, the international tiebreaker rules set in and IUP plated two in the 10th. SU began the 10th with Wilson on second base, and Bicko led off with a single to second base. Wilson scored on the play, as the IUP second baseman made a late throw in vain that rolled away from first base.
 
Sophomore Anna Warfield then came through with the big hit – a double into the right field corner that put two Raiders in scoring position. IUP switched pitchers, but it went for naught – as Collins hit a sacrifice fly to center field to plate Bicko and then Pattillo stood at home long enough for a wild pitch to plate Warfield for the walk-off win.
 
Collins had an outstanding Game 2 in the circle, throwing a career-high 10 innings with just two of her five runs being earned. She walked only one hitter and struck out seven – tying her second-highest single-game total as a Raider.
 
Bicko was 4-for-8 on the day with a pair of runs scored. With two hits in each game, she now has 16 multi-hit games on the year. Pattillo did not get a hit in Game 2 but did draw a walk – she has reached base in 13 consecutive games. Also, both Warfield and sophomore Maddie Mulhall made their first collegiate starts at catcher.
 
Shippensburg returns to PSAC East play at 2:30 p.m. Friday with a home doubleheader against Millersville on "MS Awareness Day" at Robb Field.