HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky.—The University of Southern Indiana softball team scored seven unanswered runs to top defending GLVC champion Northern Kentucky University, 8-4, in game one of a GLVC doubleheader Sunday afternoon. The Screaming Eagles, however, fell in the second game, 3-2.
USI (22-13, 6-4 GLVC), which had 14 hits in game one, reeled off six hits and plated four runs in the top of the sixth inning to take an 8-4 lead.
In the fifth inning, sophomore third baseman
Kristin Eickholt (Van Wert, Ohio), who was 2-for-3 in the game with a run scored and four runs batted in, hit a three-run shot over the leftfield fence to erase a 4-1 deficit. It was Eickholt's third of the season and fifth of her career.
The Eagles also got RBIs from freshman utility player
Lacey Ligmanowski (Homer Glen, Illinois), junior second baseman
Audra Lindenschmidt (Evansville, Indiana), and senior shortstop
Krista Nugent (Hurricane, Utah). Ligmanowski was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs.
USI also got a strong offensive performance out of sophomore leftfielder
Kathy Wood (Lynnville, Indiana), who went 4-for-4 with a pair of runs scored. Wood has hit .600 in USI's last six games and leads the Eagles with a season average of .404.
Despite a rough start, senior pitcher
Lindsey McNaughton (Carmel, Indiana) picked up her fourth straight victory. McNaughton (10-7) gave up four runs in the first inning, but settled down to blank the Norse in the final six innings.
In game two, McNaughton blasted a two-run home run—her third of the season and third in the last eight days—in the top of the second inning to tie the game at 2-2.
However, NKU's second home run of the contest, a solo shot off the bat of Katybeth Coode in the bottom of the sixth inning, was too much for the Eagles to overcome as they lost for the first time in nine games.
NKU (23-13, 7-7 GLVC) took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Sarah King blasted a two-run home run over the centerfield fence.
Senior
Missy Grover (Mishawaka, Indiana) took the loss for the Eagles after giving up three runs, two earned, off eight hits in six innings of work. She is 12-6 on the season.
USI, which is scheduled to play 12 of its final 16 games at the USI Softball Field, returns to Evansville for the first of an eight-game home stand Tuesday when it hosts Oakland City University at 3 p.m.