No. 20 Lady Raider Softball Opens Season With Sweep at Elizabeth City State

Feb. 23, 2007

Game 1 Box Score | Game 2 Box Score

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. - The No. 20-ranked Shippensburg softball team totaled 28 runs on 32 hits as the Lady Raiders opened their 2007 season with a doubleheader sweep at Elizabeth City State, 13-0 and 15-0.

In game one, junior Dani Shields (Laurel, Del./Sussex Tech) threw a no-hitter and struck out 12 in four innings before giving way to junior Jill Kirby (Glen Mills/Garnet Valley) who struck out the side in the fifth.

The Lady Raiders (2-0) scored 11 runs in the first two innings of game one and were led offensively by sophomores Kelly Nelson (Warminster/William Tennent) and Rachelle Wedell (Baltimore, Md./Northeast) who combined to go 5-for-8 with eight RBIs.

Nelson was 3-for-4 with four RBI, a double and two-run homer in the third while Wedell was 2-for-4 with four RBI and a three-run single in the third as the two accounted for all of the team’s five runs in the inning.

Senior Katie Heatley (York/Dallastown) was also 2-for-4 with two RBI and a triple while freshman Nicole Henninger (Reading/Muhlenberg) had a solo home run in the fifth.

Game two saw much of the same except the Lady Raiders led 5-0 after four innings before exploding for 10 runs in the fifth. Sophomore Lori Knopf (Crown Point, Ind./Andrean) made her first career start inside the circle on Friday, pitching four innings and striking out seven while allowing just one hit.

Sophomore Lauren Plasterer (Shippensburg/Shippensburg) pitched the fifth inning in relief.

At the plate, the Lady Raiders were led by freshman Lisamarie Ramagli (Levittown/Neshaminy) who went a perfect 4-for-4 with five RBI, three runs, two doubles and a two-run homer in making her first appearance in a Shippensburg uniform.

Heatley went 3-for-4 with three RBI in game two and finished the afternoon 5-for-8 with five RBI while starting both games at first base.

The Lady Raders’ originally scheduled doubleheader at Virginia State on Saturday has been cancelled and the team will return home to Shippensburg before traveling to Salisbury, N.C., for the Catawba College Invitational next weekend.

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