Game 1
at Saint Joseph's (20-13, 8-13 GLVC): 3
Southern Indiana (20-15, 10-12 GLVC): 0
-Box Score (8 inn.): HTML | Sortable |
Game 2
Southern Indiana: 7
at Saint Joseph's: 5
-Box Score: HTML | Sortable |
RENSSELAER, Ind.—The University of Southern Indiana softball team ended its six-game losing with a 7-5, come-from-behind victory in the second game of its Great Lakes Valley Conference doubleheader against Saint Joseph's College Sunday. USI lost the opener, 3-0, in eight innings.
USI (20-15, 10-12 GLVC) rallied from a 3-1 deficit in game two to earn the win and forge a split on the day.
Freshman
Janna Green, who gave USI a 1-0 advantage with an RBI-single in the first frame, tied the score in with a two-run double in the top of the third inning. She was 3-of-4 with three RBIs in game two.
The Screaming Eagles scored four times in the seventh frame to break the 3-3 stalemate. Freshman
Toni Braun hit a sacrifice fly to give USI a 4-3 edge; then sophomore
Brooke Harmening hit a two-run single two batters later to put USI up 6-3.
Sophomore
MacKenzi Dorsam followed Harmening with a run-scoring double as USI increased its cushion for four runs.
Saint Joseph's (20-15, 10-12 GLVC), however, took advantage of a lead-off walk and an error to cut the Eagles' advantage in half. The Pumas had runners at second and third, but freshman
Sarah Owens induced a pop-up to Green for the third out as USI held on for the victory.
Owens (5-6) earned the win after giving up five runs, three earned, off eight hits in seven innings of work.
In game one, Harmening (15-8) took a perfect game into the last half of the eighth inning, but a one-out single followed by a two-out walk set up sophomore Megan Schwartzengraber, who hit walk-off, three-run home run to give the Pumas the victory.
USI was held to just three hits, but the Eagles had runners at first and third in the fifth frame before coming away empty handed. The Eagles, who left three runners on base, got the lead-off runner on base in the seventh inning but could not capitalize.
Harmening, who has two career no-hitters, finished the game with seven strikeouts.
The Eagles return to action Thursday at 4 p.m. when they host Oakland City University in a Midwest Region doubleheader. USI resumes GLVC play Saturday when it visits Lewis University for a GLVC twinbill in Romeoville, Illinois.
