Gallery: (2-23-2025) 2025 Softball vs. Slippery Rock
SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – The Shippensburg University softball team experienced an extra-inning game and a run-rule game Sunday afternoon, splitting its home opener with Slippery Rock – losing the first game 5-4 in nine innings before taking the second game 9-1 in five innings at Robb Field.
Shippensburg (4-2) used 14 hits and 20 total walks to plate 13 runs on the day. Eight different Raiders had at least one hit while ten different Raiders scored a run.
Sophomore
Brie Wilmot reached base in seven of her nine plate appearances on the day – hitting four singles and drawing three walks. One of her hits was an RBI-single; she also scored a run.
Junior
Lindsey Haser and sophomore
Emily Lafferty both recorded multiple hits on the day; Lafferty had three and Haser two. Haser also had two RBIs and two runs scored.
Overall, Lafferty reached base five times. She drew two walks, went a perfect 3-for-3 in stolen bases, and also had two of Shippensburg's six successful sacrifice bunts.
Sophomore
Madalyn Dyer and senior
Alicia Ball combined to throw all 14 innings on the day; the duo totaled 15 strikeouts, gave us just seven hits and walked only two opposing hitters.
Shippensburg will next host Pace at noon Saturday in a doubleheader at Robb Field.
Game One
Slippery Rock's (1-1) first game of the season featured a home run in the top of the first that was set up after an Arielle Brown single to right field. Julia Montie launched the first pitch in her at-bat over the left-center field fence to give the Rock an early 2-0 lead.
A two-run bottom of the fourth sparked the Raiders back into the game. Junior
Rilee Ehrlacher opened the inning with a double to center field before advancing to third after a single by senior
Aryanna Briddell.
A walk by freshman
Gianna Cimino advanced Briddell to second, setting up Lafferty slapping the first pitch up the middle to send Erlacher home to cut the lead. A sacrifice fly from Haser brought Briddell home to tie the game at two apiece.
Shippensburg had a prime opportunity to win the game in the bottom of the seventh with the bases loaded and nobody out, but a fielder's choice at home and a 4-2-3 double play sent the game into extra innings.
In the top of the eighth inning, The Rock's Naomi Childs was placed at second and immediately advanced to third off of a wild pitch. Brown's groundout to second base allowed Childs to slip home and put Slippery Rock back up one.
Sophomore
Anna Rahner, who replaced Briddell, was placed on second for the Raiders in the bottom of the eighth. She moved to third off of a sacrifice bunt by Cimino. Sophomore
Reagan Bauman pinch hit for the Raiders, and lifted a sacrifice fly to left that brought home Rahner to tie the game again at 3-3.
A two-run top of the ninth by Slippery Rock proved to be enough for the win. After Ball struck out the first two hitters in the ninth, Emma Kennedy delivered the go-ahead RBI-single and advanced to third on the play after the throw home got away. Pinch hitter Alyssa Sheely then singled home Kennedy for a 5-3 Rock lead.
SU immediately got one run back in the bottom of the ninth after Martell scored on an RBI-single by Wilmot, but Slippery Rock starter Alexsa Hurd struck out the final two batters to give the visitors the win.
Ball, in her first action of the season, equaled a career high with 11 strikeouts while allowing only five hits, one walk, and two earned runs. It marked the fifth time in her career that she struck out 10 or more batters in a game.
Hurd allowed eight hits and eight walks but managed the victory by striking out eight and stranding 15 Raider runners over the course of the contest.
Game Two
SU opened Game 2 with a run in the bottom of the first as Lafferty walked, stole second, advanced to third on a groundout and then scored on another groundout for the early 1-0 lead.
The Raiders added another run in the bottom of the third after Haser led off with a double just inside the left-field line. A Martell double to right-center brought Haser home for a 2-0 lead.
Montie hit her second home run of the day in the top of the fourth, smacking an 0-2 pitch over the wall in straightaway center field to cut Shippensburg's lead to 2-1.
SU broke through for six runs in the bottom of the fourth despite only having two hits in the inning. Sabocsik began the frame by drawing the first of five Raider walks in the inning and scored two batters later on an RBI-single by senior
Katelyn Minney.
After SU's second successful sacrifice bunt of the inning put Minney in scoring position with two outs, Haser delivered an RBI-single to make it 4-1.
From there, Rock pitchers walked four of the next five batters they faced, with a fielding error sandwiched between. Briddell and Sabocsik drew bases-loaded walks, while Bauman – who had reached on the error – scored on a passed ball.
Shippensburg got the game-winning score with two outs in the bottom of the fifth. After Minney led off with a walk and a steal of second, Lafferty reached on a bunt single to put runners on the corners.
A pop out and strikeout prefaced Wilmot walking on four pitches to load the bases, when Bauman sent the third pitch of her at-bat up the middle to apply the eight-run rule.
Dyer improved to 3-0 by allowing only two hits and one walk while striking out four.
SU drew 12 walks in the contest, its most in a single game since 14 against Chestnut Hill on March 9, 2022. Wilmot and Sabocsik each walked three times.
