EVANSVILLE, Ind.---The 22
nd-ranked University of Southern Indiana softball team opened its Great Lakes Valley Conference slate with a sweep over William Jewell College Sunday afternoon at the USI Softball Field. The Screaming Eagles started the day with a 3-0 shutout over the Cardinals before a come-from-behind 8-6 win in the nightcap.
USI improves to 15-1 overall, 2-0 in conference, while the Cardinals, who head over to Louisville, Kentucky, to face Bellarmine drop to 7-3 overall, 0-2 in GLVC play.
In game one against the Cardinals, the Eagles established a 1-0 lead off an RBI-single by senior
Brooke Harmening (Whiteland, Indiana), allowing fellow classmate
MacKenzi Dorsam (Dubois, Indiana) home.
Dorsam, who was three-for-three in the opener, tallied an RBI-single with one out and two in the fifth for a 2-0 lead. Following Dorsam's at-bat, junior
Toni Braun (Evanston, Indiana) singled through the right side, for an RBI, solidifying USI's 3-0 win.
Harmening tallied her ninth win in game one, before stepping back in to the circle, during the top of the fifth, to save freshman pitcher
McKenzi Jordan (Crawfordsville, Indiana) after the Eagles trailed William Jewell, 3-2, in the nightcap, to improve to 10-0 on the season.
The Eagles first two runs came from RBI-singles by Dorsam and sophomore
Lexi Reese (Lebanon, Indiana), but the Cardinals would score two for a 3-2 lead causing the change in the circle for USI.
William Jewell tallied two more runs following the pitching change, and then another in the top of the sixth, leaving the Eagles to trail 6-2 in the next half-inning.
USI rose to the occasion, however, tallying much-needed runs, which featured RBI's by freshman
Olivia Clark-Kittleson (Carbondale, Illinois), redshirt-freshman
Shelby Tate (Mattoon, Illinois), and Dorsam, before a three-run homer by sophomore
Haley Hodges (Portage, Indiana) sealed the 8-6 win for the Eagles.
Southern Indiana continues conference action as it plays host to Rockhurst University Monday in a doubleheader slated for a Noon start.
The Eagles are on the road Saturday and Sunday, facing Drury University and Missouri University of Science and Technology, respectively.
