Gallery: (5-15-2025) 2025 Softball vs. Kutztown (Sup. Reg.)
KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The Shippensburg University softball team scored in six of its seven at-bats Thursday to claim Game 1 of the 2025 NCAA Atlantic Super Regional, defeating host No. 19 Kutztown by a 7-2 score in action on a damp, misty day at North Campus Field.
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Shippensburg (35-20) scored two runs in the top of the first inning and never trailed – adding to an early 2-1 advantage with single runs in each of the final five innings. The Raiders totaled nine hits – including four that went for extra bases – and laid down four successful sacrifice bunts to advance runners.
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Senior
Alicia Ball took a no-hitter into the seventh and threw her 20th complete game of the season for the Raiders. Ball scattered three singles, five walks and a hit batter while striking out four to record her 16th pitching victory of the season.
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Junior
Caitlyn Martell led off the game with a single to right field and it all went from there for the Raiders. Junior
Rilee Ehrlacher sacrificed her to second, and sophomore
Sarah Sabocsik ripped the first pitch she saw into the left-center field gap for an RBI-double and 1-0 lead.
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After back-to-back full-count walks to sophomore
Brie Wilmot and freshman
Gianna Cimino loaded the bases, junior
Emilee Sullivan hit a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0 in SU's favor.
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Kutztown (43-18) got one back in the bottom of the second. The Golden Bears drew back-to-back walks to start the inning, and with one out, Ball was unable to field a comebacker cleanly – which loaded the bases. A sacrifice fly ended up being the only damage of the inning, and SU maintained a one-run lead.
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In the third, Sabocsik led off with a four-pitch walk and later came around to score on a wild pitch. The two teams combined for six leadoff walks through the first four innings, and the one issued to senior
Aryanna Briddell in the top of the fourth chased KU ace Haley Gravish from the circle.
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After a sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch, Martell singled home sophomore pinch runner
Ryan Morse to make it 4-1 Raiders.
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Shippensburg had its leadoff batter reach base to begin five of the first six innings. In the fifth and the sixth, reaching base came in the form of a solo home run – first Cimino, followed by senior
Katelyn Minney – as the Raiders stretched their lead to 6-1. SU tacked on another run with a wild pitch in the top of the seventh.
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Kristin Geesey hit a Texas Leaguer into left field to begin the bottom of the seventh that ended Ball's no-hit bid. With two outs, Bri Stocklin singled home Geesey. The game ended when Naya Darnowski lined a ball into play that struck Stocklin as she was going to second base.
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Cimino continued a torrid stretch at the plate with four successful at-bats, going 2-for-2 with the solo home run, a single, a walk and a sacrifice bunt. She also played tremendous defense at second base, with one of several noteworthy plays coming in the bottom of the fifth when she fielded a ricochet off Ball's glove and sidearmed a rocket to first base to record an out.
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In the bottom of the sixth, Cimino dove to her right to field a ball and from her knees, successfully through to first to rob Alexa Stevens of a single. Two batters later, she fielded a grounder and threw to second to begin a 4-6-3 double play. Â
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Martell and Minney each finished with two hits. Briddell's walk was her 33rd of the year – one short of the single-season school record (34) maintained by assistant coach
Hannah Marsteller (set in 2023).
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Gravish fell to 30-9 with the loss, allowing four runs (three earned) on three hits and four walks in 3.0 innings. In her last 20 innings pitched (three games) prior to Thursday, Gravish had walked just three batters and not allowed a run in that span.
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Game 2 of the Super Regional is set for 1 p.m. tomorrow at North Campus Field. SU will be the "home" team in the game. If KU wins, the two teams would play again with a first pitch 30 minutes following Game 2's completion.
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