SHIPPENSBURG, Pa.- Winners of four in a row and six of the last eight, the West Chester University softball team (22-18, 12-10) returned to action on Saturday at Shippensburg (27-13, 14-8) for the final two games of its season series against the Raiders. West Chester dropped game one by a 14-0 final in five innings after a 12-run second inning for Shippensburg before falling victim to another late-game comeback in the nightcap as the Raiders erased a 1-0 lead with two outs in the seventh and eventually won the nightcap with a home run in the ninth to pick up a 2-1 victory and a season-series split with the Golden Rams.
With today's setbacks, West Chester has split the season series with Shippensburg once again, as the Golden Rams opened the series with wins over the Raiders in West Chester on March 30, part of a six-game, three-day stretch, before dropping the final two games of the series on Saturday afternoon.
Game One: SHIP 14 WCU 0 (5 Innings)
WP: Dani Hayward (17-4)
LP: Maci Strechay (4-8)
After using a pair of big innings to power a doubleheader and series sweep of Mansfield on Friday, West Chester fell victim to a big inning in game one on Saturday against Shippensburg, allowing 12 runs on eight hits, three errors, two hit-by-pitches, and a walk in the second inning as the host Raiders claimed a commanding lead early.
Shippensburg added two more in the third on two hits, including a two-RBI single and another error to stretch the lead to 14-0.
Dani Hayward (17-4) earned her 17
th win of the season in game one Saturday, allowing three hits and two walks, while striking out one in five innings.
Maci Strechay (Collegeville, Pa./Perkiomen Valley) (4-8) suffered the loss, allowing 11 runs (four earned) on eight hits, while striking out one in 1.1 innings.
Alyssa Tooley (Horsham, Pa./Hatboro-Horsham) finished the second, allowing one unearned run on a hit and a walk as she got the last two outs of the inning.
Rhiannon Henry (Lancaster, Pa./Conestoga Valley) finished the game in the circle, allowing two unearned runs on three hits, while striking out a pair in two innings of work.
Game Two SHIP 2 WCU 1 (9 Innings)
WP: Dani Hayward (18-4)
LP: Alyssa Tooley (8-3)
West Chester took its first lead of the fourth inning when
Holly Muni (Hamilton, N.J./Allentown) doubled to right, which scored
Presley Foote (Yardley, Pa./Pennsbury), who had pinch run for
Ceara O'Neal (Hamilton, N.J./Steinert) after she hit a two-out, two-strike double to keep the fourth inning alive.
West Chester left a pair of runners on the fifth, sixth, and seventh, which eventually allowed Bri Wilmot to tie the game in the seventh with a one-out single through the Golden Ram infield to force extra innings to decide a victor.
Looking for its first extra-inning win of the season, West Chester stranded a runner in the eighth after a two-out single by
Avelyn Van Heyst (Aaronsburg, Pa./Penns Valley), but stranded a pair of Shippensburg runners in the home eighth to send the game into the ninth.
Mairead Hopkins (West Chester, Pa./Rustin) started the ninth with a single up the middle and found her way to second via a throwing error, but West Chester could not find a way to bring its senior captain home as the game remained tied at 1-1.
West Chester got the first out of the ninth inning on a fly ball to left before Wilmot played the hero once again, lifting the 1-2 offering over the center field fence to lead Shippensburg to a 2-1 walk-off victory on Saturday afternoon.
Kaira Zamadics got the start for Shippensburg and allowed a run on four hits and a walk, while striking out one. Hayward (18-4) entered in relief and pitched the final five innings, scattering four hits and a walk, while striking out one to earn her second win of the afternoon.
Danielle Ciliberto (Ambler, Pa./Wissahickon) got the start for West Chester and was excellent for much of the afternoon, allowing just one run on nine hits, while striking out one before exiting in the eighth in favor of Tooley.
Tooley escaped the eighth with a strikeout and got the first out of the ninth before surrendering the home run to Wilmot as she fell to 8-3 on the season.
Up Next
West Chester will be back in action on Tuesday at Millersville in a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.
