The Shippensburg University softball team had to settle for a split at Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division opponent Mansfield on Tuesday, winning the opener 6-1 before dropping Game 2 by a 10-6 score in action at chilly Helen Lutes Field.
Shippensburg (17-11, 6-6 PSAC East) never trailed in the opener as senior
Alicia Ball (Woodstock, Va./Central) tossed her third straight complete game and seventh overall this season. Ball scattered four hits and one earned run while striking out six and walking three.
SU manufactured a pair of runs in the top of the fourth to open the scoring with RBI groundouts from senior catcher
Aryanna Briddell and junior
Rilee Ehrlacher.
In their next turn, an RBI double from sophomore
Sarah Sabocsik brought home junior
Caitlyn Martell, who tripled earlier in the fifth, to make it 3-0. SU added three insurance runs in the seventh with an Ehrlacher sacrifice fly, a run on an error, and an RBI-single by Briddell.
Game 2 started out positively for the Raiders, as an RBI-single by junior
Lindsey Haser and a two-run single by freshman
Gianna Cimino put the Raiders up 3-0 after two innings.
Mansfield (6-16, 4-10) scored four runs off freshman
Dani Hayward in the bottom of the third to take a 4-3 lead – a two-out, three-run homer by Caydence Macik was the key blast.
SU took a 6-4 lead in the fifth on an RBI-double by Martell and a single by sophomore
Reagan Bauman that plated two.
The Mountaineers got an unearned run off sophomore
Madalyn Dyer in the fifth before a five-run sixth gave them the edge. The inning included a solo home run by Kylie Bornmann and a two-run triple by Sarah Shupp.
Sophomore
Emily Lafferty had three of Shippensburg's seven hits in Game 2.
It is the second straight year that the teams have split a doubleheader at Mansfield.
Shippensburg returns to action at 2 p.m. Friday for a divisional doubleheader at Lock Haven.
