Julia Mooney had two hits and drove in three for Pitt-Johnstown in Wednesday's non-conference softball opener at Shippensburg, but the Raiders battled back and walked-off with an 8-7, eight inning victory. Shippensburg then took game two, 8-0 in five innings.
Hailei Markee had three hits on the day for the Mountain Cats, now 15-14 on the season.
In the opener,
Kayla Miehl and Mooney each drove in runs with two-out base hits to give Pitt-Johnstown an early 2-0 first inning lead.
After a pair of wild pitches allowed runs to score that tied it in the Shippensburg third, the Mountain Cats answered with three runs of their own in the top of the fifth.
Laura Fox pinch ran for
Carly Santillo, who led off with a single, moved to third on Miehl's double, and scored on Mooney's ground out that gave the lead back to Pitt-Johnstown. Markee's squeeze bunt chased home pinch runner
Shaylin Hagerman, and a Raiders' fielding error sent Mooney home to increase it to 5-2.
Shippensburg clawed back in the sixth to tie it on three straight RBI singles from Morgan Lindsay, Katelyn Minney, and Alyssa Nehlen.
Neither team scored in the seventh and it went into extra innings.
In the top of the eighth,
Olivia Porter was placed on second to start the inning and scored on
Tori Radvan's infield single, before Mooney's fielder's choice chased home Santillo to give Pitt-Johnstown an 7-5 advantage.
However, the Raiders struck for three runs in the bottom of the eighth to walk off with the 8-7 win. Lindsay and Minney each drove in runs to knot it at seven, and Nehlen followed with a base hit that scored Lindsay with the game-winner.
Mooney went 2-for-4 and drove in three, while Miehl and Markee each collected two hits and an RBI for the Mountain Cats. Santillo had a pair of hits, and Porter added a hit and scored two runs.
Alyssa Hileman fell to 9-6 after giving up eight runs (7 earned) on 11 hits in seven-plus innings.
Lindsay, Minney, and Nehlen all had two hits and two RBI for the Raiders.
Alicia Ball earned the complete-game win in the circle for Shippensburg and improved to 12-4. Ball gave up seven runs (5 earned) on 11 hits, while striking out five and walking four.
In game two, Shippensburg loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the first and Nehlen delivered a two-run single up the middle.
The Raiders added five more in the second, including Hannah Marsteller's three-run home run, that increased it to 7-0.
Marsteller added a solo homer in the fourth and Shippensburg went on to the five0inning victory.
Markee had two hits, and
Maddie Flowers and Mooney each had a hit for Pitt-Johnstown.
Tori Radvan surrendered eight runs (6 earned) on nine hits over the first four innings and suffered the loss to fall to 1-5.
With the sweep, Shippensburg improved to 24-14.
Pitt-Johnstown travels to California (PA) for a PSAC West doubleheader on Friday, before returning home on Saturday to host a pair of conference games against Seton Hill at V.E. Erickson Complex.
