Gallery: (4-27-2024) 2024 Softball vs. Kutztown (Senior Day)
SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – The Shippensburg University softball team lost a Senior Day doubleheader to Kutztown on Saturday by scores of 12-7 and 11-6 from rainy Robb Field.
Shippensburg (31-17, 18-14 PSAC East) entered the day as the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Division but ended it as the No. 4 seed – ironically its same seed as last year. It concludes the regular season on a three-game losing streak and having lost seven of its last 10 games overall entering the conference tournament.
Kutztown (31-20, 19-13) entered the day needing to win at least one game to secure a PSAC Tournament berth and ended it having climbed from the East No. 4 seed to the East No. 2 seed.
Saturday's doubleheader was delayed more than 90 minutes due to rain, with the first pitch of Game 1 coming after 2:30 p.m. The weather was chilly, damp, and mostly miserable. Also contributing to the divisional mess was a similar situation down at Shepherd, as the Rams and West Chester were delayed until after 3 p.m. due to congruently obnoxious weather.
When those two teams finally got underway at Shepherd, Game 1 went 11 innings, with Shepherd winning on a walk-off. The two teams could not complete Game 2 due to darkness, resulting in a suspended game. The PSAC is not making the teams finish the suspended game, as WCU would have been the No. 3 seed* regardless of the result.
Once play finally started at Robb Field, a steady supply of offense was on display. The two teams combined for 51 hits, 18 of which went for extra bases, and 10 of the 14 innings played resulted in at least one run for either team.
Morgan Lindsay, one of four Raider seniors recognized in a pre-game ceremony, hit three home runs (two two-run shots and a solo shot) in Game 1. It was the first time a Raider hit three homers in a game since Lindsay herself did it against Seton Hill at last year's PSAC Tournament. It is the third time in three years that a Raider has cranked three homers in a game, as
Hannah Marsteller did so at Holy Family in 2022.
Overall, Lindsay was 4-for-8 in the doubleheader with five RBI. Junior
Katelyn Minney, who entered Saturday with just four hits in her previous 10 games, responded by going 5-for-7 with a solo home run to center field, a double, two stolen bases and three runs scored.
Every Raider who had an at-bat in the doubleheader finished with at least one hit, including three singles each for sophomores
Emilee Sullivan and
Caitlyn Martell and a solo home run by freshman
Brie Wilmot.
SU led 4-3 after four innings in Game 1 and 3-2 after three innings in Game 2, but KU unleashed a six-run fifth inning in Game 1 and a seven-run fourth inning in Game 2 to completely flip the script in each contest.
Kutztown's senior outfielder Brianna Hughes and freshman left fielder Emily Henn were the difference makers Saturday. Hughes was 5-for-6 with a grand slam, two doubles, a sacrifice fly, a walk, four runs, and a whopping 10 RBI in the doubleheader. Henn finished the day 6-for-10 with two doubles, a triple, four RBI and three runs.
Joining Lindsay in the pre-game ceremony was fellow seniors
Maelynn Leber,
Taylor Myers and
Alyssa Nehlen. Leber pitched 2.2 innings in the circle in Game 1; Myers had two hits including a two-run single, and Nehlen had two hits and a painful RBI as she was hit in the head by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Now, Shippensburg will play twice Wednesday in Quakertown. Its first game will be at 10 a.m. against IUP (West No. 5 seed).
If SU wins that game, it will then face the West No. 1 seed (either Gannon or Seton Hill) at 3 p.m.
If SU loses that game, it will then play an elimination game at 5 p.m. against Slippery Rock, Bloomsburg or East Stroudsburg (dependent on results earlier in the day).
* Tiebreaker explanation
* If West Chester would have gone on to lose Game 2 at Shepherd, it would have created a three-way tie in the divisional standings (WCU, SHIP, BLOOM at 18-14). To break the three-way head-to-head tiebreaker in that case, WCU would have been the No. 3 seed by going 5-3 vs. SHIP and BLOOM, SHIP the No. 4 seed by going 4-4 vs. WCU and BLOOM, and BLOOM the No. 5 seed by going 3-5 vs. WCU and SHIP.
* If West Chester would have gone on to win Game 2 at Shepherd, it would have created a two-way tie with Kutztown in the divisional standings. The two teams split the season series, but Kutztown would have claimed the tiebreaker for the No. 2 seed by going 3-1 against East No. 1 seed East Stroudsburg (compared to WCU going 1-3 vs. East Stroudsburg).
