CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Leading 4-1 entering the top of the seventh inning and needing just three outs to advance to Saturday's final, Kutztown had its lead slip to Shippensburg, which scored five runs in the inning and downed KU 5-4 Friday afternoon in an NCAA Atlantic Regional winner's bracket game at the University of Charleston.
 
The Golden Bears (30-25 overall) will be right back out on the field for an elimination game at 5 p.m., against host Charleston, a team they beat 2-0 in yesterday's opening game. The Golden Eagles downed Davis & Elkins in the game prior. The winner will advance to Saturday where they will have to beat the Raiders twice to advance to the Super Regionals the following weekend.
 
Brianna Stocklin (Deptford, N.J./Deptford Township) went 3-for-4 with an RBI and both Brianna Hughes (Hatboro, Pa./Upper Moreland) and Haley Gravish (Hamburg, Pa./Hamburg) finished with two hits, with the latter also throwing seven innings inside the circle. Naya Darnowski (Manchester, N.J./Manchester Township) had a hit and two RBIs, while Sarah Harvat (Bangor, Pa./Bangor) recorded a hit, scored a run and added an RBI. Hannah Reimel (Warminster, Pa./William Tennent) rounded out the lineup with a hit, as KU finished with 10 total.
 
After a scoreless first inning from both teams, Kutztown broke out in a big way with a three-run bottom of the second where it recorded three hits in the frame. Brianna Hughes (Hatboro, Pa./Upper Moreland) worked a one-out walk and then advanced to second after Harvat reached on an infield error. Next up, Gravish loaded the bases with a single the opposite way to right field. Stocklin and Darnowski, then, had back-to-back RBI hits, with Stocklin's an RBI single to left and Darnowski's a two-run double to right to put KU ahead 3-0.
 
The Raiders (34-18) got on the board in the top of the fifth with a run off an RBI single by the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference's East Division Athlete of the Year, Hannah Marsteller. It was the first run allowed by Gravish of the tournament to date, through two games. Runners were on first and second with two outs and the go-ahead batter at the plate, but Gravish got Ship's cleanup hitter, Morgan Lindsey, to pop up to Kristin Geesey (Bainbridge, Pa./Elizabethtown) to limit the damage.
 
The Maroon and Gold wasted little time getting that run right back. In the bottom of the fifth, Hughes beat out an infield single to short and then came around to score two pitches later on a single to the right center field wall by Harvat and a 4-1 lead.
 
Shippensburg threatened in its last at-bats in the top of the seventh as it recorded three straight one-out singles to load the bases. Then Marsteller was at it again as she ripped a two-run single to left field that almost got over the fence. Lindsey then tied the score at 4-4 with a run-scoring single the next batter. A run-scoring groundout gave Ship the all-important go-ahead run and 5-4 edge.
 
Maddie Uschock got the first two KU outs of the bottom of the seventh, but Hughes singled and Harvat walked to put the tying run at second and winning run at first. Uschock got a fly out in the next at-bat to win the game for the Raiders.

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