PORTSMOUTH, Ohio – On a day that runs were hard to come by, the University of Pikeville softball team lost twice to Shawnee State in Mid-South Conference play on Wednesday, falling 4-0 in the opener and 2-0 in game two.
UPIKE drops to 14-24 overall and 6-14 in MSC play, while SSU moves to 17-16 overall and 8-12 in league play. With four conference games left this weekend, it's still a tight race for the bottom four spots in the league standings.
UPIKE returns to action at 3 p.m. ET on Friday against Georgetown, which has already wrapped up the No. 3 seed in the MSC Tournament, at Paul Butcher Field.
Shawnee State 4, UPIKE 0
Both teams managed to come up with just three hits each, but Shawnee was able to do more with them with the help of five UPIKE errors to register the 4-0 win.
Logan Cline led Pikeville with two hits, while Kitty Raymond chipped in with one. Alexandra Quill took the pitching loss after allowing four runs, of which only one was earned, on three hits with a pair of strikeouts.
SSU's Brooke Blevins collected the win after striking out four batters on the way to the complete-game shutout.
Shawnee struck for two runs in the first inning, which ended up being all they'd need to win. Kaitlyn Gleich drew a one-out walk, then scored on a play at the plate that resulted in a dropped ball by Pikeville catcher Destiny Molden.
After Tara Duncan reached on an error at third, Mackenzie Riley was at the plate with runners on the corners and two outs, but before she could groundout an error was made on a throw from second during a stolen-base attempt, allowing Marisa Brown to score from third.
SSU added single runs in the fourth and sixth frames for insurance as Blevins continued to keep the Bears quiet at the plate. It became a 3-0 game in the fourth on a bases-loaded walk, then went to 4-0 in the sixth on a bases-loaded groundout.
Shawnee State 2, UPIKE 0
Hannah Skaggs lost in tough fashion, giving up the first and only two runs of the game in the sixth inning on a pair of two-out singles. Skaggs allowed just three hits for the game and struck out five batters, but the Bears couldn't come up with a hit with runners in scoring position, despite outhitting SSU 6-3.
Raymond and Absher paced Pikeville with two hits each and Cline and Jillian Bohnert tallied one hit each.
Mckenzie Whitaker got the win in the circle after throwing seven shutout innings with one strikeout against two walks.
After five scoreless frames and two outs, Brown tallied the winning hit for Shawnee, driving in Madi Phillips with a single to shallow center. In the next at-bat, Kayla Koch delivered an RBI single to left, scoring Gleich to make it 2-0.
UPIKE went three up, three down in the seventh, doing so for the first time since the second inning. The Bears put a runner on third base twice in the game, both coming in the fourth inning. But Raymond was thrown out at the plate and Cline was stranded at third after a fly out.
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