In a rain-filled week, the West Chester women’s softball team was able to squeeze in only one early week match-up. On Wednesday, April 2, the Lady Rams saw their 16 game winning streak snapped at the hands of the Millersville Lady Marauders in two hotly contested match-ups that both resulted in extra inning losses by final scores of 10-5 (game one) and 8-1 (game two) respectively.In the first game of the double header, West Chester jumped out to an early 5-1 lead after three innings, thanks to Jamie McComb, who hit a pair of two-run doubles and led all players with four RBI’s. However, Millersville struck back off of Lady Rams ace Shannon Padula for two runs in both the fourth and seventh innings. Millersville leadoff hitter Shaina Briel smashed a two-run homerun in the top of the seventh to tie the game at five.
With the game knotted at 5-5 after seven innings and Millersville struck for five runs in the eighth inning to pull out the five-run victory, as they were able to shut down West Chester in the bottom half of the extra frame. Shannon Padula suffered the loss as she fell to 16-4 on the season for West Chester.
In the game, Padula gave up 15 hits and ten runs (only five of which were earned) while walking one and striking out six. The winning pitcher for Millersville was Emily Flieger who pitched three innings and was followed by Courtney Eckman, who threw five scoreless frames and improved her record to 3-3 on the season. Flieger gave up all five West Chester runs.
In the second game, West Chester was in command for the first five innings as they held a 4-0 advantage until Millersville struck for four runs in the top of the sixth and then four more again in the eighth inning.
For the second straight game, Jamie McComb was the Lady Rams’ offensive force going one-for-four, knocking in two of the four West Chester runs. First baseman Meghan Harbaugh and shortstop Kristin McCoy each knocked in a run for the Lady Rams as well.
Three West Chester pitchers saw action as Ashley Saussman (5.2 innings), Brittany Rees (two innings) and Shannon Padula (0.1 innings) each were on the mound. Rees suffered the loss as she fell to 0-1 on the year.
However, the pitching was not terrible as three West Chester errors led to seven unearned Millersville runs. Janelle Mrakovich got the win for Millersville pitching all eight innings giving up four earned runs while striking out one and walking none.
On Saturday, April 5, the Lady Rams split with another division rival, the Bloomsburg Lady Huskies. They fell in the opener 2-1, but won the second game 5-4 in ten innings.
At the end of the week the Lady Rams improved their overall season record to 22-9 and 3-3 in the conference and currently sit in fourth place in the PSAC Eastern division.
After many rainouts, the Lady Rams have a full slate of games this week. First, they take on the East Stroudsburg Lady Warriors on Sunday, April 6, at 2 p.m. on the South Campus Field. On Tuesday, West Chester travels to Shippensburg and on Friday the team heads to Kutztown, both of which are double headers beginning at 2:30 p.m.
Mike Heiman is a third-year srtudent majoring in Elementary Education with a minor in literacy. He can be reached at MH606613@wcupa.edu.