Shields Strikes Out 12, But Errors Cost No. 20 Softball 5-1 Loss at Catawba

Mar. 2, 2007

Box Score

SALISBURY, N.C. - Junior Dani Shields (Laurel, Del./Sussex Tech) had 12 strikeouts, but three home runs by Catawba and two Lady Raiders errors resulted in a 5-1 loss for the No. 20-ranked Shippensburg softball team Friday afternoon at Catawba's Whitley Field.

Shields, who totaled six of her 12 strikeouts through three innings while holding the Indians (15-3) scoreless, but allowed back-to-back home runs to Jacqueline White and Allie Marshall to lead off the bottom of the fourth.

Trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the fifth, Shippensburg (2-1) committed two costly errors which led to three unearned runs and a 5-0 deficit. With two outs and a runner on second, White hit two consecutive foul balls that were dropped by the Lady Raiders, prolonging the at bat before she reached on a single up the middle that scored Jessie Whitesides.

Whitesides would score during the next at-bat when Marshall hit her second home run of the game and sixth this season with a two-run shot to centerfield.

In addition to their two defensive errors, the Lady Raiders also committed two base running errors with the most crucial of them coming in the top of the sixth. Trailing 5-0, instead of 2-0, sophomore Kelly Nelson (Warminster/William Tennent) hit a two-run homer down the left field line with two outs to get Shippensburg on the board.

However, a base running mistake by sophomore Becky Brensinger (Chambersburg/Chambersburg), who led off the inning with a bunt single, ended the inning with the Lady Raiders trailing 5-1. After rounding third, Brensinger missed touching home plate and after an appeal by Catawba, the umpires called Brensinger out, denying the second run.

Shippensburg then had a runner on first with one out in the top of the seventh when junior Sarah Stengl (High Springs, Fla./Holidaysburg (Pa.)) flied out to center before freshman Nicole Henninger (Reading/Muhlenburg) was thrown out at first after failing to retreat following Stengl's fly ball.

Shields finished the game with 12 strikeouts in her second start of the season while scattering eight hits, with three home runs and two doubles, over six innings. She allowed five runs, but only two were earned. In two starts this season, Shields has totaled 24 strikeouts in 10 innings.

Offensively, Henninger totaled two of the team's five hits while Nelson, Brensinger and sophomore Rachelle Wedell (Baltimore, Md./Northeast) all had one.

Shippensburg returns to action on Saturday afternoon in the first of two games when it takes on Wingate at 12:00 p.m. Later in the afternoon, the Lady Raiders face Mars Hill, also of the South Atlantic Conference, at 3:00 p.m.

- Lady Raider Softball -