Lady Raider Softball Falls in Opening Game at NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional

May 10, 2007

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KUTZTOWN, Pa. - Jess Schmoyer went 2-for-3 with a two-run home run and three RBIs to lead the East Stroudsburg softball team to a 4-0 victory over Shippensburg in game one of the 2007 NCAA Division II Mid-Atlantic Region Championship Thursday morning at Kutztown's North Campus Field.

Meanwhile, Kristen Halvorsen had a stellar game in the circle for Warriors (27-26), extending her school record with her eighth shutout victory of the season as she struck out seven and faced just 24 batters in picking up her 13th victory.

For Shippensburg (29-23), the loss was the seventh in the last 11 games as the Lady Raiders were held to just four hits. Freshman Lisamarie Ramagli (Levittown/Neshaminy) has two of the team's four hits, going 2-for-3 with a double.

After Halvorsen retired Shippensburg in order in the top of the first, Jen Veronesi, who was named to the NFCA Mid-Atlantic Region First Team on Wednesday, was hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom of the inning.

Schmoyer, a native of Kutztown and a graduate of Kutztown High School, then drove the first pitch from Lady Raider sophomore Lori Knopf (Crown Point, Ind./Andrean) over the fence in right center for her first home run of the season to give the Warriors a 2-0 lead.

Leading 2-0 in the bottom of the second, Schmoyer then drove in the Warriors‚ third run on an RBI-single up the middle to score Eliza Morosco before Candace Pastor would follow with an RBI-double to score Schmoyer, doubling East Stroudsburg‚s lead to 4-0 after two innings.

The Warriors stranded 10 runners on base in the game and managed to get their lead-off batter on-base in four of the team‚s six offensive innings.

Shippensburg junior Dani Shields (Laurel, Del./Sussex Tech) would relieve Knopf at the start of the third inning after Knopf allowed four runs on six hits. She entered the game as the team's leader in ERA at 2.37 while ranking second in wins with nine.

Shields allowed only three hits in the final four innings, but the Lady Raiders could not get anything going offensively despite quality opportunities in the fifth and seventh.

Ramagli led off the fifth with a double down the left field before freshman Kiley Abersold (Philipsburg/Philipsburg-Osceola) came in to pinch run. During the next at-bat, junior Sarah Stengl (High Springs, Fla./Hollidaysburg (Pa.)) hit into a double play when Abersold was thrown out at third trying to advance on Stengl‚s ground out to third.

In the seventh, sophomore Rachelle Wedell (Baltimore, Md./Northeast) led off the inning with a double to left field before Halvorsen retired the three batters on a strike out and back-to-back infield pop outs.

Eliza Morosco and Ali Hale also had multiple-hit games for East Stroudsburg, going 3-for-3 and 2-for-4, respectively.

Shippensburg will play Bowie State of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) in the Friday's first game at 9:00 a.m., after the Bulldogs were beaten by top-seeded Lock Haven 8-0 in five innings in today's second game.The game can be heard live on student radio station WSYC 88.7 FM in Shippensburg and on the internet at raiders.ship.edu.

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