Starting the season on the road in South Carolina over the weekend, the Slippery Rock softball team dropped a pair of games against Newberry College and had another doubleheader against Claflin University cancelled.
A 7-0 shutout win for Newberry in Game 1 saw a contrasting game from the two squads.
Star junior pitcher Camie Shumaker took the mound for Slippery Rock in its first game against Newberry on Saturday. Shumaker fought through a complete game, allowing four earned runs on 12 hits while striking out six batters.
Newberry’s Selice Daley effectively limited Slippery Rock to just one hit. Junior infielder Aubrey Allen notched the only hit, a single, in the second inning, but it would be the last for SRU in the game.
Slippery Rock (0-2, 0-0 PSAC) and Newberry played a scoreless first inning before the Wolves scored a trio of runs in the second inning, a pair of them coming unearned.
Newberry (9-1, 0-0) scored two more runs in the third inning and another in the fourth inning off a pair of doubles. The Wolves added an insurance run in the fifth to make it 7-0.
Game 2 started off as more of the same as sophomore pitcher Chloe Sharman gave up a three-run home run in the first inning and four more runs in the second to allow Newberry to jump out to another 7-0 lead.
Sharman, who went two innings and gave up seven runs on seven hits, was pulled for freshman pitcher Claire Zimmerman, making her college debut.
Sophomore first baseman Regan Hozak scored the first run of the season for Slippery Rock, scoring on a wild pitch as freshman right fielder Anna Villies advanced to third.
Junior third baseman Becca Roesch drove in the first run of the season during the next at-bat, singling up the middle to drive in Villies.
Newberry scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the third inning to wash out the Slippery Rock runs and added two more in the fourth inning to push its lead to 11-2.
Sophomore infielder Maggie Moore drove in Slippery Rock’s third run of the game in the top of the fifth inning, singling to send Roesch to third and Villies home.
Freshman left fielder Holand Tolliver ground out during the next at-bat to draw the third out and end the game in the fifth inning, 11-3.
Zimmerman pitched two innings, giving up four runs on four hits while striking out one and walking four more. However, Sharman picked up the loss.
While Slippery Rock was scheduled to play Claflin just over an hour south in Orangeburg, South Carolina on Sunday, heavy rains forced the game to be canceled during the first inning of Game 1.
Slippery Rock had jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning, with sophomore infielder Sara Mikulec drawing a bases-loaded walk to score freshman outfielder Lexie Zavarelle.
The heavy rain would force the game to a halt soon after and both teams decided to end the games.
Slippery Rock will be back in action on Saturday, Feb. 29, and Sunday, March 1, for a pair of doubleheaders against Virginia State University in Petersburg, Virginia. The Saturday and Sunday doubleheaders are scheduled to begin at noon.
