KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Kutztown softball met a hot Shippensburg team, which went 3-0 last week to advance out of its regional pod, including defeating No. 10 East Stroudsburg twice. Ship continued its hot streak Thursday afternoon and defeated No. 19 KU 7-2 in game one of a best-of-three NCAA Super Regional at North Campus Field.
 
The Golden Bears (43-18 overall) played behind for the entirety of the game and saw a 2-1 deficit turn into 7-1 quickly and were unable to muster up any offense against the Raiders (35-20) and their starting pitcher, Alicia Ball. The senior limited the Maroon and Gold to just three hits, all three coming in the seventh inning, however, when they also scored their second run of the game on an RBI single by Brianna Stocklin (Deptford, N.J./Deptford Township) that brought home Kristin Geesey (Bainbridge, Pa./Elizabethtown), who broke up the no-hitter in the bottom of the seventh.
 
Shippensburg took an early 2-0 advantage on a run-scoring double and sacrifice fly. Kutztown answered in the bottom of the second after back-to-back walks to Morgan Slomkowski (Toms River, N.J./Toms River East) and Samantha Paetow (Fayetteville, Pa./Chambersburg), Jenna Piatkiewicz (Fogelsville, Pa./Parkland) delivered her team's first run on a sacrifice fly to right field, as KU cut its deficit in half, 2-1.
 
The Raiders would then score a run in every inning from the third inning to the seventh to keep putting a cushion in front of themselves.
 
Stocklin, Geesey and Naya Darnowski (Manchester, N.J./Manchester Township) all finished with one hit for Kutztown.
 
Game two of the best-of-three super regional is scheduled for tomorrow, Friday, May 16, at 1 p.m. KU must win to force a third and deciding game, which would be played at 3:30 p.m.
 
  Read Full Article