GREENSBURG, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University softball team dropped a pair of games at Seton Hill University in 9-1 and 7-0 losses in its return to Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division action Sunday.
 
The Rock falls to 10-17 on the year and 3-5 in the PSAC West, while the Griffins improve to 22-8 overall with a 10-2 mark in conference competition.
 
Alexsa Hurd (3-6) fell in game two from the circle despite striking out 12 SHU batters in 6.0 innings. Kelsi Anderson (2-7) fanned six batters in the 5.1 innings played in game one.
 
Naomi Childs put together the lone multi-hit effort for The Rock by going 2-for-4 across the twin bill. Julia Montie tallied her fifth home run of the year in a 1-for-6 day, joining Arielle Brown (1-for-5) and Alyssa Sheely (1-for-6) with a hit.
 
GAME ONE – Seton Hill 9, Slippery Rock 1 (6 innings)
An early home run from Montie gave Slippery Rock a glimmer of hope before the Griffins pulled away with an eventual 9-1 victory in game one.
 
Montie led off in the second inning and drove a home run into right field while facing a 2-2 count to give The Rock a 1-0 advantage.
 
Slippery Rock's defense held the Griffins for a brief period before Seton Hill took its first lead of the game in the bottom of the third inning. A pair of wild pitches after a single and an error granted the Griffins a 2-1 edge.
 
Seton Hill kept momentum in its direction by increasing that tally to 6-1 in a four-hit sixth inning before securing the run-rule victory in the bottom of the sixth when two hits and an error turned into three additional runs for a 9-1 margin.
 
Childs singled in both of her at-bats going 2-for-2 as Montie's home run contributed to her 1-for-3 showing. Sheely wound up hitting 1-for-3 with a single as well.
 
Anderson tossed six strikeouts over the course of 108 pitches in 5.1 innings. The Griffins garnered a 7-4 advantage in hits with Lauren Dellett (10-5) picking up the win while throwing nine strikeouts.
 
GAME TWO – Seton Hill 7, Slippery Rock 0
Slippery Rock suffered a 7-0 shutout in game two as Seton Hill's prolific offense stayed hot through the day.
 
Hurd rattled off five strikeouts through the first two innings, holding the Griffins at bay in a 0-0 game before SHU broke through on a fielding error in the third to go up 1-0.
 
A lead-off solo shot home run in the bottom of the fourth grew that SHU lead to 2-0 prior to the difference doubling again to 4-0 later that inning with another homer.
 
Slippery Rock, which had been held hitless through the game by Logan Hartman's nine strikeouts, got its lone hit of the contest on a single to centerfield by Brown in the visitors' half of the sixth.
 
A third Griffins home run is how Seton Hill began the bottom of the sixth inning to improve the lead to 5-0. A triple and a single later on in the frame put that lead up to 7-0 before a strikeout denied Seton Hill the chance to pick up another six-inning-win.
 
While Emma Kennedy was able to get on base in the top of the seventh with a walk, a fielder's choice closed out the day in the 7-0 loss.
 
Brown's hit played into her 1-for-2 day in the batter's box, the lone piece of offense for SRU. Seton Hill finished the game with eight hits as a team.
 
Hurd impressed again in the circle by dealing strikeouts to 12 of the 31 batters faced, throwing 130 total pitches.
 
UP NEXT
Slippery Rock will compete in its fifth PSAC West doubleheader of the season 2 p.m. Tuesday at Indiana University (Pa.) with all five doubleheaders thus far having been contested on the road.





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