Skaggs sets single-season wins record in doubleheader split against Shawnee State

PORTSMOUTH, Ohio -- One program record fell and another is on the verge of falling after a weird weekend set at Shawnee State.

Field availability pushed what would have been a Friday-Saturday series to Saturday-Monday, then weather turned the four-game series into a two-game series, one that the two teams of Bears split.

Game 1

The first game of the series got started on Saturday afternoon, and Shawnee State got started immediately.

SSU got four hits nearly back-to-back to score three runs off Pikeville starter Megan Claypoole. Pikeville got one of those runs back in the fourth inning after Kelsey White hit a home run to center and cut the lead to 4-1. That was the first of two hits in the game for White.

But then the skies opened up and forced the game to be postponed to after the Easter Sunday holiday, sending the teams home.

Once the game resumed on Monday, Shawnee State continued its offensive attack with six runs combined in the fifth and sixth innings.

Pikeville's other run in the game came on an RBI single from Hannah Absher. But, from their neither team could muster up much else and Shawnee went on to win 9-2.

Game 2

The second game on Monday was a special one for the entire program as the team earned its program record tying 26th win over the season, this one a 5-3 win.

But in addition to the team record, UPIKE starter Hannah Skaggs earned her 14th win on the season, the most in a single-season by a Bear. Skaggs broke a record that she tied herself last year.

Skaggs surrendered seven hits and just one earned run while striking out six in her record setting win.

Shawnee State got on the board first after an error on a dropped third strikeout extended the inning. But UPIKE took the lead in the third inning thanks to two errors and two hits plating three runs. Jordan Gentry, MacKenzie Pawlak, and Haley Osborne all had RBIs in the inning, while Gentry's single and Pawlak's double contributed the two hits.

Gentry added two more runs herself in the fourth with a two-run home run to center, her team-high fifth on the season to give the Bears a 5-1 lead.

From there, the only trouble Skaggs would face for the rest of the game would be a two-run fifth inning that featured four straight two-out singles. Outside of that inning, Skaggs would give up just one hit the rest of the game.

UP NEXT

UPIKE will try to set the season wins record this weekend with Georgetown coming in for senior weekend. Doubleheaders are scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Paul Butcher Field.

-UPIKE-