Kutztown Extends Win Streak to 17 With Sweep of Shippensburg
Apr. 21, 2007
KUTZTOWN, Pa. - The No. 17-ranked Kutztown softball team joined Lock Haven in having clinched a spot in next month's PSAC Softball Championship as the Golden Bears swept a PSAC Eastern Division doubleheader from Shippensburg, 4-2 and 9-3.
The wins extended Kutztown's school-record winning streak to 17 games with the Golden Bears (35-13, 17-1 PSAC East) who have all but secured the right to host this year's conference championship at North Campus Field May 3-5.
The Golden Bears also completed their first-ever four-game season sweep of Shippensburg and the team's first sweep since 1994, back when the teams played just twice during the regular season.
For Shippensburg (25-18, 8-8 PSAC East), the two losses dropped the team three games behind East Stroudsburg for third-place in the Eastern Division standings. The Warriors split a doubleheader at Mansfield Saturday while Bloomsburg swept a doubleheader at West Chester to move into second-place.
The Lady Raiders will have a chance to make up one game on East Stroudsburg on Sunday with a doubleheader sweep of Mansfield at Robb Field that has been rescheduled four times.
Shippensburg, which lost for just the third time in its last 11 games, nearly pulled off the win in game one, taking a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth when sophomore Rachelle Wedell (Baltimore, Md./Northeast) hit a two-run homer to right, scoring junior Liz Good (Croydon/Truman) who led off the inning with a single.
It was the first home run of the season for Wedell and the second of her career.
Meanwhile, junior Jill Kirby (Glen Mills/Garnet Valley), who was making her seventh start this season and first since April 10, kept the PSAC's top-ranked offense in check through four innings, allowing just three hits.
However, the Golden Bears tied the game in the bottom of the fifth with two runs on three hits, both coming on a two-run single by Adriane Willmer. With one out in the sixth, Krista Cameron hit her 12th home run of the season, a two-run shot to left that also scored Stephanie Denlinger.
Through 48 games this season, Cameron and Denlinger have combined for 33 home runs and 108 RBIs.
Kirby struck out four in six innings and limited Kutztown to only seven hits, but suffered her fifth loss of the season.
Offensively, Good and freshman Nicole Henninger (Reading/Muhlenberg) each went 2-for-3, combining for four of Shippensburg's six hits in game one.
In game two, the Lady Raiders again scored the first two runs of the game, scoring both on RBIs from sophomore Chelsea Carson (Shippensburg/Shippensburg) and freshman Lisamarie Ramagli (Levittown/Neshaminy), but Kutztown again responded, plating three runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 3-2 lead.
The conference's top offense showed itself in the second game as the Golden Bears erupted for nine runs on 11 hits, all against sophomore Lauren Plasterer (Shippensburg/Shippensburg) who pitched six innings and suffered her third loss of the season and second against Kutztown.
The Golden Bears scored at least one run in five of their six offensive innings and in the process, set a new school, single-season record with 468.
Sophomore Lori Knopf (Crown Point, Ind./Andrean) led the Lady Raiders offensively, going 2-for-2 in game two. Carson extended her hitting streak to four games with a single in the first and has totaled at least one hit in 10 of her last 13 games.
Shippensburg hosts Mansfield at Robb Field on Sunday beginning at 1:00 p.m.
- Lady Raider Softball -
