The Shippensburg University softball team went to each extreme in its season-opening games Sunday, posting a 10-2 victory in six innings over Molloy before dropping a 16-7 decision in six innings to host Wingate in action at Union Academy in Monroe, N.C.
 
Shippensburg (1-1) erupted for 18 hits and 17 runs on the day. Eight different Raiders had at least one hit, while nine different Raiders scored a run.
 
Junior Caitlyn Martell was 4-for-5 with a home run, double and six RBIs, drawing two walks as well to reach base in six of her seven plate appearances. Martell extended her hitting streak to 22 games after finishing last season with hits in 20-in-a-row.
 
Junior Lindsey Haser and sophomore Emily Lafferty each had three hits on the day – Haser had two doubles and two RBIs. Both women scored two runs and stole a base.
 
Sophomore Sarah Sabocsik, taking over the leadoff role following the graduation of Taylor Myers, reached base four times atop the batting order. Sabocsik doubled twice, walked twice, and scored three runs.
 
Junior Rilee Ehrlacher had a hit in both games – a pinch hit double in the opener and an RBI-single in Game 2. Ehrlacher went 2-for-3 overall with a walk and a pair of runs.
 
Sophomore Madalyn Dyer got the pitching win in the opener, scattering two runs on five hits in six innings while walking one and striking out one.
 
Shippensburg remains in North Carolina tomorrow and will face Catawba at noon in a doubleheader at Whitley Field.
 
Game 1: Ship 10, Molloy 2 (six innings)
 
Molloy (1-3), which was playing its fourth game of the weekend after going 1-2 against Wingate, plated both of its runs in the top of the first before the Raiders rallied with 10 unanswered. After the first, Dyer allowed just two hits over the final five innings.
 
A five-run bottom of the second catapulted the Raiders ahead. After back-to-back walks to start the inning, Haser sent the eighth pitch of her at-bat far down the left-field line to tie the score. After an RBI infield single by Lafferty, Martell waited on an off-speed pitch and drilled it into the right-center field gap to make it 5-2.
 
A pair of solo home runs in the third inning made it 7-2. Sophomore Brie Wilmot destroyed the first pitch of the inning well over the left-field fence, and two batters later, senior catcher Aryanna Briddell sent the first pitch of her at-bat over the left-center field fence for her first collegiate home run.
 
In the sixth, SU ended the game early with a pinch-hit RBI-single from sophomore Reagan Bauman, a bloop single by Wilmot that fell in between multiple fielders in short center, and a sacrifice fly to deep left-center field by freshman Gianna Cimino.
 
Game 2: Wingate 16, Shippensburg 7
 
The second game of the day for both the Raiders and the Bulldogs featured 23 runs, 22 hits and eight walks.
 
A Martell single in the top of the first gave the Raiders a brief lead; Wingate started out with a pair of groundouts before unleashing a home run, a double, a walk and two more doubles to take a 4-1 lead.
 
SU countered in the top of the second with five unearned runs on just one hit. In between strikeouts, Ehrlacher, Briddell and Sabocsik drew walks to load the bases. An error in the infield with Lafferty at the plate made it 4-3, and Martell then came up and launched a three-run homer to make it 6-4 before the ninth out of the game had been recorded.
 
Haser doubled to lead off the third and Ehrlacher singled her home to make it 7-4, but that ended up being the final Raider run.
 
Wingate scored two unearned runs in the bottom of the third to get within one and then scored four times in the bottom of the fourth to lead 10-7. The big blow was a two-out, three-run homer by Savanna Brooks – a Wingate native and Union Academy graduate who was playing on her high school field.
 
SU was still within three runs before the Bulldogs erupted for six in the bottom of the sixth to walk it off. Brooks finished with six RBIs, while starting pitcher/designated player Hali Scott had a homer and five RBIs.
 
Junior Kaira Zamadics, freshman Dani Hayward and sophomore Maddy Borowski all saw time in the circle for the Raiders.

 

SOFTBALL: Lindsey Haser gets the Raiders on the board in 2025! She rips a two-run double down the left-field line to make it 2-2 in the second against Molloy! 🥎 pic.twitter.com/4FrJQBNU5u

— Shippensburg University Raiders (@ShipURaiders) February 16, 2025

 

A Brie 💣! 6-2 SHIP in the 3rd in the opener 🥎 pic.twitter.com/Q2czivTlHK

— Shippensburg University Raiders (@ShipURaiders) February 16, 2025

 

A PINKY 💣!!

7-2 SHIP in the third against Molloy pic.twitter.com/e3udp6rBPR

— Shippensburg University Raiders (@ShipURaiders) February 16, 2025

 

It's time for a Marty 💣

Marty's three-run HR caps a five-run top of the second for the Raiders. All the runs scored with two outs.

It's 6-4 SHIP and we're still in the second inning in Game 2. Already nine hits and four walks between the two teams pic.twitter.com/d0RQQ0ZI9c

— Shippensburg University Raiders (@ShipURaiders) February 16, 2025