Sophomore Kirsti Yates (Chillicothe, OH) and junior Ericka Leighty (South Point, OH) each hit walkoff homeruns to propel the Bears to a pair of wins over West Virginia Tech at home on Sunday afternoon. In the opener, junior Ali Thompson (Franklin Furnace, OH) threw a no-hitter and struck out a career-high 14 batters in the win.
Game one was a pitchers dual. Thompson threw a spectular game, retiring 21 batters without allowing a hit or walk in the contest. West Virginia Tech's Jessica Stapleton pitched a complete game allowing one run on two hits and one walk. Stapleton struck out six Shawnee State batters.
In the bottom of the seventh, with one out and two strikes, Yates hit a walkoff homerun over the centerfield wall for the win.
The night cap was an exciting thriller, as Shawnee State again pulled out the victory with a walkoff home in the bottom of the eight to take the victory.
Shawnee State got their bats out in the first as they tallied three runs on four hits. Freshman Brytan Givens (Frankfort, OH) led off with a base hit to left. Back-to-back singles by freshman Kelsey Jenkins (Wheelersburg, OH) and junior Sam Attinger (Mt. Orab, OH) loaded the bases, bringing Yates to the plate. Yates hit a single to center, scoring Givens and Jenkins. Attinger scored the Bears' third run on a sacrifice fly to center to give Shawnee the 3-0 advantage.
West Virginia Tech knotted the game in the fourth with three runs. Kathryn Campbell scored on a base hit by Ali Holmes and Stephanie Nickell singled to left, scoring two more Golden Bear runs to tie the game.
In the top of the fourth Ashley Gibbard hit a single to center, scoring Katherine Lively to give West Virginia Tech the 4-3 lead.
Senior Jourdan Priddy (Xenia, OH) hit an RBI single to left to score Leighty and tie the game at 4-4.
With two outs, Leighty hit the ball over the left field wall to propel the Bears to the 5-4 win.
Sophomore Tara Prater improves to 4-1 on the mound as she pitched a complete game allowing four runs on nine hits.
Stapleton came in for the Golden Bears and pitched the final 1.2 innings allowing one run on one hit. Jacquelyn Wood got the start for West Virginia Tech and allowed four runs on eight hits and two walks in 5.0 innings. She also struck out four batters.
Shawnee State travels to Pikeville on Tuesday, March 13 to open conference action. First pitch is set for 3:00 p.m.
