PORTSMOUTH – Softball handed No. 9 Lindsey Wilson just its second loss of the conference schedule and fourth overall with a 3-2 win in the opening game of its home doubleheader Sunday. After the Bears (19-12, 11-9 MSC) took the opening game, the Blue Raiders (30-4, 16-2 MSC) rebounded with a 10-0 victory in five innings during game two.
Shawnee State got on the board early with a pair of runs in the second inning. Tara Duncan (FR/Lancaster, Ohio) was hit by pitch with one out, while Tara Prater (SR/Hilliard, Ohio) reached on a wild throw from third base to give the Bears new life with two outs. Heidi Hall (FR/Greenwich, Ohio) and Kelsey Jenkins (JR/Wheelersburg, Ohio) each took advantage of the extra out as they followed up the error with back-to-back RBI singles. Those hits were SSU's first of the day and gave the Bears a 2-0 lead on the pair of unearned runs.
Lindsey Wilson got one of those runs back in the top of third with a double and single from the top two hitters in the Blue Raiders' lineup. However, Shawnee State starter Allie Chapman (JR/Chesapeake, Ohio) would bounce back and pitch perfect fourth and sixth innings, while stranding a leadoff double in the fifth to keep her team ahead.
The Bears added a run to their lead in the bottom of the fourth. Duncan started the inning with a double just off the centerfielder's glove in the right field gap. Prater then singled her home with one out to make the game 3-1.
Trailing 3-1 heading into their final at-bats, the Blue Raiders got a leadoff single that was followed up with a double in the top of the seventh, cutting the score to 3-2. With the game-tying run in scoring position and nobody out, Chapman got the next batter to fly out center before a ground ball to second moved the base runner to third with two outs. Chapman took the final out herself with a swinging strikeout as the Bears held on 3-2.
Chapman improved to 11-6 on the season with her complete game effort. She scattered six hits over that time and allowed one walk, while striking out five. Her counterpart, Bryan Casey allowed three runs (one earned) in her five innings of work on five hits. She suffered her first loss of the season, falling to 14-1 on the year.
Lindsey Wilson came back quickly in game two and scored a pair of runs on three consecutive two-out singles to take an early lead. The Blue Raiders' big inning came in the top of the fourth when they blasted four home runs in the frame to the tune of eight runs. Travatia Bowden and starting pitcher Jordan Hood led off the inning with back-to-back solo home runs.
The Bears should have been out of the inning with just those two runs, but an error on the infield allowed the inning to continue. Bailey Mize would end up hitting a two-run home run, while Bowden drilled her second home run of the inning, also a two-run shot, over the fence as the Blue Raiders led 10-0 after that eight-run fourth inning.
That was more than enough offense for Hood as she allowed just two hits over her five inning complete game, while striking out seven. The Bears' lone hits in the game came from Hannah Foster (SO/Portsmouth, Ohio) with two-outs in the second inning as she singled down the right field line. Hannah Dittoe (SO/Pickerington, Ohio) doubled into right-centerfield with two outs in the fourth inning as the Bears final runner of the afternoon.
Softball will be back at Boone Coleman Field tomorrow afternoon as Asbury comes in for a 4 p.m. non-conference doubleheader. Those two games will be the final non-conference action of the season for Shawnee State before the Bears play their final eight conference doubleheaders (four home and four away) to close out the regular season.
