Game 1
McKendree (5-14, 3-8 GLVC): 5
at Southern Indiana (14-9, 4-6 GLVC): 3
-Box Score: HTML | Sortable |
Game 2
at Southern Indiana: 3
McKendree 2
-Box Score (10 inn.): HTML | Sortable |
EVANSVILLE, Ind.—Sophomore
Brooke Harmening tossed 16.1 innings as the University of Southern Indiana softball team salvaged a doubleheader split with Great Lakes Valley Conference East Division foe McKendree University Friday afternoon at the USI Softball Field.
USI (14-9, 4-6 GLVC) lost the first game, 5-3, before earning a 3-2 decision in 10 innings in game two.
Harmening (10-3), who earned the win in game two after giving up two unearned runs off eight hits in 10.0 innings of work, hit a solo home run in the last part of the fourth inning to tie the contest at 1-1.
The Screaming Eagles, who left 14 runners on base in game two after squandering scoring chances in the opener by stranding 10 runners on base, took a 2-1 lead in the following frame when Harmening hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly into foul territory.
McKendree (5-14, 3-8 GLVC), which used a five-run first inning to claim the victory in game one, took advantage of two errors in the sixth inning to tie the contest at 2-2.
USI loaded the bases in the last part of the seventh inning, but failed on two occasions to push the game-winning run across the plate.
The Bearcats, who left 11 runners on base in the nightcap, had scoring chances in the ninth and 10th innings, but could not push across the go-ahead tally. McKendree had runners and second and third with one out in the ninth inning, but a pair of ground-outs to end the frame kept it off the scoreboard. The Bearcats squandered a bases-loaded situation in the 10th inning as well.
With the bases loaded and one out in the last part of the 10th inning, junior
Alison Nord hit a ground ball to McKendree third baseman Dana Schulte. Schulte's throw home for the force-out, however, pulled the catcher, allowing sophomore
Mollie Thomas to score the game-winning run.
McKendree's five-run first inning in game one chased USI freshman hurler
Sarah Owens out of the contest. Owens (4-5) was charged with the loss after giving up four hits and issuing a pair of walks in 0.2 innings of work.
USI finally broke through in the fifth inning when Harmening, who came on in relief in the first frame to allow just two hits, drilled an RBI-single down the leftfield line. Harmening, who had five strikeouts in game two and a combined seven on the day, went 4-of-8 at the plate with three RBIs in the two contests.
Sophomore
MacKenzi Dorsam, who extended her hitting streak to eight games in the opener only to see the streak come to an end in the nightcap, had a one-out, two-run blast over the rightfield fence in the seventh inning to cut the Eagles' deficit to 5-3. Dorsam did extend her season-high streak of reaching first base safely to 13 games with a pair of walks in the nightcap.
USI had the game-tying run on base later in the seventh inning, but could not complete the comeback as McKendree held on for the victory.
The Eagles return to action Saturday at noon when they host Bellarmine University in a GLVC doubleheader at the USI Softball Field. Bellarmine (16-13, 8-4 GLVC) defeated Kentucky Wesleyan College, 5-0, in the opening game of a GLVC twinbill Friday in Owensboro, Kentucky.
