SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – The Shippensburg University softball team had a six-run inning in both games of its Saturday doubleheader with Lock Haven, defeating the Bald Eagles by scores of 8-1 and 9-3 in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division action at Robb Field.
 
Shippensburg (7-9, 6-8 PSAC East) cranked out 25 hits and struck out just four times Saturday. All nine Raider hitters had two or more hits, with seven Raiders collecting three hits in the doubleheader.
 
Noteworthy was Shippensburg's production with two outs. The Raiders scored 13 of their 17 runs with two outs, including all eight runs in Game 1, and produced 16 of their 25 hits with two outs.
 
Hannah Marsteller had three hits, including an RBI-triple. She reached base six times, as she also received two unintentional intentional walks and was hit by a pitch.
 
Marsteller has started the 2021 season on a 16-game hitting streak – equaling the longest-known single-season hitting streak in school history (SU Hall of Famer Jaime-Lyn Dacey started the 2005 season on a 16-game hitting streak).
 
Lacey Hunter had three singles, three RBIs, three stolen bases, and another outfield assist. Both Taylor Radziewicz and Toni Jones had three hits, three RBIs and three runs scored.
 
Taylor Myers had three hits, three runs scored and two stolen bases. Cori Ritter had three hits and an RBI, and Leber had three hits. Both Leber and Radziewicz are on seven-game hitting streaks.
 
From the circle, freshmen Brianna Small and Maelynn Leber each picked up a win and helped keep the Lock Haven (1-9, 1-9) bats at bay.
 
Game 1: Shippensburg 8, Lock Haven 1
Shippensburg scored six runs in the bottom of the first inning, setting the tone for the day.
 
Myers led off with a single and was on second base after a sacrifice bunt and a pop out. Marsteller sliced a triple into the wind in right field to plate Myers, and Courtney Coy then ripped a liner off Lock Haven pitcher Jada Schellhammer for an RBI-single; Schellhammer had to leave the game one batter later.
 
Leber singled to center field, and Ritter followed with a swinging bunt that ended up as an infield single and the bases loaded. Jones hit a two-run single to right field, and Hunter then ripped a two-run single to left field, and the Raiders had batted around in the first.
 
Small retired the first nine hitters she faced, yielding a lone unearned run in the fourth inning. She surpassed her season strikeout total (10 through 13 IP) in one outing, fanning 11 batters without allowing a walk in the complete-game victory.
 
The Raiders added two more runs in the fifth, again with two outs. Morgan DeFeo and Radziewicz delivered RBI-singles.
 
Game 2: Shippensburg 9, Lock Haven 3
Small came out to start Game 2 for the Raiders but did not make it out of the opening inning, as she allowed a two-run single with two outs in the first. Leber came in out of the bullpen and finished the game, allowing just one run on five hits over 6.1 innings with two strikeouts.
 
The Raiders got one run back in the bottom of the first on an RBI-single by Marsteller after Radziewicz doubled with two outs. Then, in the third, a six-run inning broke the game open. A DeFeo RBI-double, Radsiewicz fielder's choice and Marsteller sacrifice fly gave SU a 4-2 lead. With two outs, a Jones bloop single, Ritter single up the middle and Hunter infield single made it 7-2.
 
Radziewicz and Leber added RBI-singles in the sixth.  
 
Up Next
Shippensburg travels to Lock Haven for a 1 p.m. Monday doubleheader.
 
Notes: Marsteller is on a 21-game hitting streak when factoring in the five-game streak she had when the 2020 season ended. Research is being conducted to confirm if this is a school record. According to the NCAA Division II record book, only two PSAC players (Bloomsburg's Erica Miller (2001), Kutztown's Jen Schock (1994) have ever produced hitting streaks of 25 or more games.