Entering Saturday's River States Conference doubleheader against Alice Lloyd (Ky.), the Shawnee State softball program had a chance to match the program's highest single-season win total since 2012.

Kristen Bradshaw's group wasted no time making that fact a formality -- as the Bears notched 24 runs on 24 hits and scored in nine out of the 10 innings that were played Saturday in 15-5 and 9-0 mercy-rule victories in five innings over the Eagles in Pippa Passes, Ky.

Shawnee State (29-7, 19-7 River States Conference) not only collected its 12th and 13th mercy rule wins of the year out of the 36 contested games to date in 2024, but padded its lead in the River States Conference-East Division race over Rio Grande as the RedStorm split with Point Park Saturday.

If Shawnee State wins just one out of its remaining six affairs -- all River States Conference doubleheaders at Point Park Monday and at home against West Virginia Tech Friday and Rio Grande Saturday -- Shawnee State will collect its first 30-win season since 2006. The Bears, however, have an opportunity to accomplish much more than that.

Game 1

Shawnee State blitzed Alice Lloyd from the beginning in Game 1 -- as a leadoff walk by Jenna Christopher was followed by three consecutive singles by Cassie Berry, Lauren Spears and Sierra Dunnagan to make it a 2-0 SSU advantage.

The following batter after Dunnagan, Mackenzie Hale, then launched a two-RBI double to add to the commanding lead, and after a single by Amariah Hoerner advanced Hale to third base, Allison Tom's sacrifice fly RBI and an RBI triple by Brittani Wolfenbarker finished off the crooked six-run first inning. Hale then doubled again in the second inning and scored on an RBI base knock by Hoerner, making the score 7-0 through the first inning-and-a-half of action.

Alice Lloyd cut the SSU lead slightly to 7-2 following the second frame after getting two runs back in the bottom half of the second frame, but undaunted, the Bears responded back with a five-run third inning that saw Shawnee State score on a single by Hale, three errors, a walk and a hit batter, pushing the Bears' lead to a 12-2 margin after the top half of the third frame.

Alice Lloyd managed to work the deficit back down to a 12-5 cap after the fourth inning of work, but Shawnee State responded with a three-run fifth to finalize matters in Game 1, as a walk by Sierra Dunnagan, a single by Genavie Espinoza and a single by Katie Pruitt was followed by a bases-loaded walk by Gracey McCullough and a two-RBI double by Andi Webb to finalize the scoring.

Game 2

While not having the type of crooked frames that it had in Game 1, Shawnee State got an impressive one-hitter through four innings by Amariah Hoerner in Game 2 -- as the sophomore struck out five batters and pitched around two bases-loaded jams effectively in the second and fourth frames of work to keep Alice Lloyd off of the scoreboard thanks in part to a defense that didn't commit an error in 10 defensive chances.

Offensively, Shawnee State again faced little trouble, as a leadoff single by Jenna Christopher and an error was followed by a two-run triple by Sierra Dunnagan in the opening frame, while Hoerner helped her own cause by nabbing a leadoff double before scoring on Brittani Wolfenbarker's one-out base knock to push the SSU lead to a 3-0 margin after two innings of work.

Following a leadoff double by Dunnagan and an RBI single by Hale that allowed the Bears to take a 4-0 lead after three innings complete, a walk by Wolfenbarker and a single by Christopher allowed Dunnagan to drive both talents in with an RBI double in the fourth inning, with Dunnagan also scoring herself after two passed balls allowed the three-hole hitter to come around to score.

Cameryn Davidson's walk and a single by Lexie Lockwood then allowed Davidson to score on a sacrifice fly RBI by Hoerner while Lockwood scored on an RBI groundout by Bianca Belo-Diaz in the fifth inning to finalize Saturday's scoring, with Genavie Espinoza, who worked the fifth frame in place of Hoerner, keeping Alice Lloyd off of the scoreboard in the bottom half of the fifth inning to conclude matters.

Additional

At the plate, Shawnee State was led by Sierra Dunnagan (4-for-6, triple, two doubles, five RBI, six runs scored), Mackenzie Hale (4-for-6, two doubles, three RBI, run scored), Amariah Hoerner (3-for-7, double, two RBI, two runs scored) and Brittani Wolfenbarker (2-for-4, triple, three RBI, two runs scored) in both contests. Jenna Christopher went 3-for-5 with a walk and four runs scored at the leadoff position between both contests while Lexie Lockwood went 2-for-3 with a run scored in Game 2.

Andi Webb (1-for-2, double, two RBI), Cassie Berry (1-for-3, run scored), Lauren Spears (1-for-2, RBI, two runs scored), Genavie Espinoza (1-for-1, run scored), Katie Pruitt (1-for-1, run scored), Allison Tom (1-for-3, run scored) and Gracey McCullough (two walks) all had productive at-bats in Game 1 while Cameryn Davidson, in addition to pitching three innings of relief in Game 1, walked and scored in the fifth inning of Game 2 as mentioned to finalize the offensive output.

Shawnee State (29-7, 19-7 River States Conference) will look to solidify its conference tournament positioning over the final week of the regular season as the Bears will look to close out said regular season with six wins. Monday's doubleheader against Point Park, a makeup of a rainout back on April 12, will be held in Pittsburgh, Pa. beginning at 1 p.m. Monday afternoon.

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