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Southern Indiana (4-2): 5, 6,
McKendree (1-6): 1, 5
-HTML Box Scores: Game 1 | Game 2 (8 innings)

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EVANSVILLE, Ind.—Sophomore centerfielder Teri Newmaster had a walk-off single in the bottom of the eighth inning to lift the University of Southern Indiana softball team to a 6-5 win and a doubleheader sweep of future Great Lakes Valley Conference member McKendree University Tuesday evening at the USI Softball Field.

After belting the visiting Bearcats, 5-1, in the opening game, the Screaming Eagles had to rally from a three-run deficit to force extra innings in game two.

Freshman second baseman Kara Werner, who was 3-of-4 in the second game, had a two-out, two-run triple in the last part of the sixth inning to close McKendree's three-run cushion to 4-3. Werner scored the tying run in the next at-bat on a pinch-hit, RBI-single by freshman outfielder Breanne Lahart.


After the two teams played a scoreless seventh inning, McKendree (1-6) took advantage of the international tie-breaker rule to take a 5-4 lead in the top half of the eighth inning.

Werner, who recorded her first-career collegiate hit in game two, tied the contest with an RBI-single in the bottom half of the eighth inning; while Newmaster, who was 2-for-4 at the plate in the second game, singled in the winning run two batters later.

Freshman hurler Brooke Harmening (4-1) came on in relief in the bottom of the fifth inning and threw three-and-a-third innings to pick up the victory. Harmening struck out five batters and gave up just one unearned run off one hit.

In game one, it was Harmening who took advantage of a pair of USI home runs to earn the win inside the pitcher's circle. Harmening, who fanned eight batters in the opener, allowed just one unearned run off five hits in seven innings of work.

Senior third baseman/designated player Kristen O'Haver, who was a combined 4-of-7 with a pair of doubles and two RBIs on the day, gave USI a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when she cranked a 3-0 pitch over the left-centerfield fence.

Sophomore catcher Lauren Hatfield hit a solo shot on the first pitch she saw in the second inning to give the Eagles a 3-0 edge.

USI tacked on two more runs in the sixth inning on an RBI-single by junior rightfielder Katherine Belsito and an RBI-groundout by Hatfield. Belsito's RBI-single in the fourth inning of game two put the Eagles into a 1-1 tie.

The Eagles begin GLVC play Thursday at 2 p.m. when they travel to Kansas City, Missouri, to take on Rockhurst University. USI also visits GLVC-newcomer William Jewell College Friday at 1 p.m. in Liberty, Missouri, before beginning the Division II Rebel Spring Games Sunday in Kissimmee, Florida.