EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Following an eight-day hiatus from game action, University of Southern Indiana Softball returns to the field Tuesday afternoon when the Screaming Eagles host Austin Peay State University at 3 p.m. from USI Softball Field.
Admission to all 2023 USI Softball home spring games is free, courtesy of The Women's Hospital Deaconess.
USI enters Tuesday with an 18-20 overall record and is 7-11 in non-conference games this season. In USI's last non-conference matchup, the Screaming Eagles defeated Butler University, 4-1, back on April 12.
Southern Indiana is coming off a bye week in Ohio Valley Conference play and has not played since April 23 when the Screaming Eagles captured a doubleheader sweep at Tennessee State University. After dropping the series opener, 3-0, USI bounced back with a 3-2 win and a 5-1 victory for the series win against the Tigers.
Sophomore pitchers
Hailey Gotshall (Lucerne, Indiana) and
Josie Newman (Indianapolis, Indiana) each posted quality starts in the two wins, going 6.1 and 7.0 innings, respectively. At the plate, senior
Allie Goodin (Evansville, Indiana) concluded the series with a big performance, blasting two home runs and tallying five RBIs. Her multi-home run game was the first by a USI player this season and the fourth multi-homer game of Goodin's USI career. Goodin is now a home run shy of joining junior first baseman
Lexi Fair (Greenwood, Indiana) inside the top-10 in USI's all-time history for career home runs.
Goodin leads the Screaming Eagles with a .415 batting average, 14 doubles, five home runs, and 34 RBIs. Fair is second on the squad with four home runs and 22 RBIs. Junior outfielder
Mackenzie Bedrick (Brownsburg, Indiana) is second on the team in batting average, hitting .310, but she paces USI with 27 runs scored. As a team, USI is batting .250 with 123 runs and 58 extra-base hits. The USI pitching staff has a 3.29 ERA and 201 strikeouts, and opposing batters are hitting .234 against USI.
Austin Peay is 24-20 this season, having gone 11-10 in the Atlantic Sun conference season. The Governors have lost six straight contests, getting swept on consecutive weekends by the University of North Alabama and Liberty University. Austin Peay's last win was 7-3 win against the University of Chattanooga on April 19. Offensively, Austin Peay is hitting .262 with 14 home runs and 47 stolen bases. The pitching staff has a 3.54 ERA and opposing batters have hit .276.
The Governors have a slight upper hand in the all-time series, leading 15-13. The all-time series dates to 1986. The two schools last met for four games in 1993, as Austin Peay won the first three that season before USI captured the last all-time meeting by a final score of 5-2.
Fans can follow along to Tuesday's game via live stats, which can be found on the USI Softball schedule page on usiscreamingeagles.com.
