Softball Splits With Millersville on Senior Day, Earns No. 2-Seed in PSAC Championship
Apr. 29, 2006
SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. - Millersville totaled eight runs on 10 hits against senior Kelley Tiesi (Baltimore, Md./Catholic School of Baltimore) in picking up an 8-6 victory in game one of a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division softball doubleheader at Robb Field on Saturday. The Lady Raiders won game two 8-0 in five innings.
With the doubleheader split, the team's fifth in its last six doubleheaders, the Lady Raiders (36-16, 17-7 PSAC East) secured the No. 2-seed in the Eastern Division in next week's PSAC Softball Championship at Lock Haven University. By virtue of its sweep at home versus East Stroudsburg Saturday, Bloomsburg secured the No. 1-seed, finishing with an 18-6 conference mark.
Tiesi surrendered a career-high 10 hits and eight runs, only three of which were earned in suffering her first loss in her last six starts. She also struck out 11, raising her career total to 1,023, moving her into sixth-place all-time on the Division II list. Tiesi is 57 strikeouts behind Debbie Tidy of Sacred Heart for fifth-place.
Trailing 2-0 after three innings, the Marauders (29-19, 12-12 PSAC East) scored three runs in the fourth to take a 3-2 lead. Holding a one-run lead, Millersville added five runs in the top of the sixth, highlighted by a two-run homer to center field by Erin Hepner. Four of the runs were unearned after Shippensburg's second error of the game.
Down by six runs heading into the bottom of the seventh, the Lady Raiders threatened with a one-out rally after freshman Rachelle Wedell (Baltimore, Md./Northeast) doubled to left field, scoring junior Heather Chantiles (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Dauphin) after she and senior Kristen Marll (Severn, Md./Archbishop Spalding) had back-to-back singles.
Freshman Lori Knopf (Crown Point, Ind./Andrean) then hit a three-run homer to center field, pulling Shippensburg to within two, 8-6, before Millersville head coach Kathy Cummings brought in Jessica Vonada in relief of Erica Slavinski.
Vonada promptly got freshman Kelly Nelson (Warminster, Pa./William Tennent) to strike out swinging and freshman Krystal Shannon (Portland, Maine/South Portland) to ground out to shortstop, ending the game and picking up her second save.
Knopf finished the game 3-for-4 with four RBI while Chantiles was also 3-for-4 with two runs and one RBI.
After going 3-for-3 in the second game, Chantiles now has 97 hits on the season, just three shy of becoming the first player in Division II to reach 100 for a single-season since 2000. She would also be the 18th player in Division II history to ever total 100.
In game two, Shippensburg jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first after Knopf and junior Ali Morris (Warrington, Pa./Central Bucks East) each had two-RBI doubles.
The Lady Raiders added three runs in the fourth on a single to left field by sophomore Sarah Stengl (High Springs, Fla./Holidaysburg (Pa.)) that scored Nelson before Wedell drove in two more run with her own RBI-double to score Stengl and Morris.
Morris, who went 3-for-3 with three RBI in game two, ended the game in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI-single to right, scoring freshman Becky Brensinger (Chambersburg, Pa./Chambersburg) who was pinch ran for Shannon after she led of the inning with a walk.
Meanwhile, sophomore Danielle Shields (Laurel, Del./Sussex Tech) allowed just two hits over five innings while striking out four to earn her 12th victory of the season.
As the No. 2-seed in the Eastern Division in next week's PSAC championship, Shippensburg will open play on Thursday at Noon, against Indiana (Pa.), the No. 3-seed from the Western Division. More information on this year's conference championship can be found on the PSAC web site at www.psacsports.org.
- Lady Raider Softball -
