QUAKERTOWN, Pa. — In a back-and-forth opening round matchup of the 2024 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Softball tournament, the IUP Crimson Hawks rallied for a lead before falling 9-5 to Shippensburg on Wednesday morning at Veteran Park.
IUP (29-24) will play in an elimination game later today (May 1) against the loser of the East Stroudsburg/Bloomsburg matchup. That game begins around 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Falling behind 4-0, the Crimson Hawks eventually clawed back for a 5-4 advantage in the sixth inning. Shippensburg (32-17) responded with consecutive home runs in the bottom half of the sixth, putting the game away for good.
Jordan Sylvia evened the score at four with a solo home run in the sixth inning before
Jess Cekada singled home
Paige Truax. The 5-4 lead was short lived for the Crimson Hawks as Shippensburg racked up the final five runs of the afternoon.
Tess Smiley got IUP on the board with a two-run single in the fourth, moving to third on a misplay in right field. Cekada grounded out in IUP's next trip to the play, scoring Smiley while trimming the deficit to 4-3.
The sequence was part of five consecutive runs scored by IUP over the fourth and sixth innings. The Raiders answered with the decisive five-run sixth inning. Shippensburg cracked four home runs on the day, including two from Sarah Sabocsik.
Sylvia posted two hits on the day for IUP, with Smiley and Truax each adding a hit and run scored.
Kendall Young, the reigning PSAC West Pitcher of the Week, pitched 5.1 innings in the circle for the Hawks.
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