TUESDAY'S SCORES
Jacksonville State 7, @Tennessee Tech 0
@Tennessee Tech 2, Jacksonville State 0
SIUE 10, @Eastern Illinois 3
SIUE 13, @Eastern Illinois 0 (5)
@Austin Peay 4, Murray State 2
Murray State 4, @Austin Peay 2
JACKSONVILLE STATE 7, TENNESSEE TECH 0; TENNESSEE TECH 2, JACKSONVILLE STATE 0
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - A pair of pitching gems were the story on Tuesday when Jacksonville State and Tennessee Tech split a doubleheader behind a two-hitter from Faith Sims and a no-hitter from Alyssa Arden.
Sims shut down the Golden Eagles (16-18, 6-6 Ohio Valley Conference) in a 7-0 win in the opener before Arden's no-no handed the Gamecocks (25-11, 9-3 OVC) a 2-0 defeat in the nightcap.
Sims (16-3) got plenty of run support in the first game and needed very little. The senior from Cordova, Ala., tossed her seventh shutout and her 15th complete game in 20 starts. This gem saw her limit the Golden Eagles to just two hits and retire the last 13 batters she faced. She allowed just two baserunners over the final six innings after escaping a bases loaded jam in the first.
Seven different JSU batters scattered its eight hits, with senior Hayley Sims picking up two of them in three at bats. She also had one of three doubles by JSU batters, with senior Lex Hull and freshman Karsen Mosley recording the others.
Freshman Sidney Wagnon, who entered the game as a reserve after leadoff batter Hannahstaysia Weaver had to exit the game in the first inning, led the team with two RBI in the win.
After two scoreless frames, the Gamecocks got on the board twice in the third on an RBI grounder from Wagnon, who later scored on a wild pitch. A throwing error and wild pitch allowed two more to score in the fourth, and a Kirsten Titus RBI single in the fifth made it a 5-0 JSU lead.
Hayley Sims drove in one in the sixth, right before a Wagnon sac fly put the seventh and final run on the board for JSU.
Haeli Bryson (3-6) suffered the loss after allowing five runs on four hits and a walk in 4 and 1/3 innings of work.
The second game was Arden's turn to even the series. She struck out eight and walked three in her seven hitless innings of work, improving to 10-7 on the season. She bested JSU starter Nicole Rodriguez (5-4), who allowed two runs on six hits in her five innings in the circle.
Two of those hits were the costly ones, with Raegan Sparks and Sydney Love-Baker connecting on solo homers to lead TTU's offensive attack.
AUSTIN PEAY 4, MURRAY STATE 2; MURRAY STATE 4, AUSTIN PEAY 2
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - Austin Peay and Murray State split a pair of Ohio Valley Conference games, Tuesday afternoon at Cheryl Holt Field at Cathi Maynard Park, as the Govs took the opener 4-2, while the Racers took the nightcap with a 4-2 final.
In Game 1, the Govs (22-16, 7-3 OVC) took advantage of two Murray State errors to score a pair of unearned runs in the second inning for a 2-0 lead.
Murray State (18-19, 8-2 OVC) responded with a run in the top of the third on a sacrifice fly by Brenna Fink to cut the Govs lead in half, 2-1.
Danielle Liermann would get the run back in the bottom of the inning on her 14th home run of the season, then extend the APSU lead out to 4-1 with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourth.
Murray State would score its final run of the game in the fifth on a home run by Lindsey Carroll, but they would get no closer, as Morgan Rackel (16-5) closed out the game by retiring nine of the final 10 batters she faced to seal away the 4-2 victory for Austin Peay.
Game 2, would see the Govs jump out to a quick 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on an RBI single by Liermann, but Murray State would score the next three runs of the game on a two-run single by Lillie Goetz in the third inning and an RBI single by Jensen Striegel in the fifth to go up 3-1.
Austin Peay would get to within one run, 3-2 on an RBI single by Rackel in the bottom of the fifth inning, but the Racers would close out the game’s scoring with a home run by Lexi Jones in the top of the seventh inning for the 4-2 final.
Taylor Makowsky (6-2) would pick up the win for Murray State, while Ellison Barrett came in to pitch two innings of shutout relief to pick up her first save of the season.
SIUE 10, EASTERN ILLINOIS 3; SIUE 13, EASTERN ILLINOIS 0
CHARLESTON, Ill. - SIUE softball muscled up for 23 runs Tuesday for a doubleheader sweep at Eastern Illinois.
SIUE captured a 10-3 victory in game one and added a 13-0 triumph over five innings in the nightcap. The Cougars evened their record to 4-4 in Ohio Valley Conference play and 12-16 overall. The Panthers dropped to 10-33 overall and 1-11 in the OVC.
While the offense exploded for double-digit runs for the fourth and fifth time this season, SIUE's pitching threw 11 consecutive scoreless innings. Corrina Rivas earned her sixth win of the season in game one. Bianca Vozenilek tossed a three-hit shutout in the nightcap, her first shutout as a Cougar.
In game one, the Cougars scored in four of seven innings with a six-run rally in the third inning highlighting the game.
Abby Marlow, who had three doubles and four RBIs for the day, started the rally with a one-out double. In the third inning, the Cougars took advantage of an EIU error as well as a two-RBI triple by Bailley Concatto, an RBI single by Alana Cobb-Adams and a two-RBI single by Conner Cutright.
Rivas gave up just four hits for the victory.
After sending 11 batters to the plate in the third inning of game one, the Cougars matched and surpassed that effort in game two.
Fifteen batters went to the plate in the fifth inning in a nine-run rally. Sammie Ofoia, who had three hits and four RBIs in game two, hit her second home run of the season.
Vozenilek benefitted from SIUE's biggest offensive explosion of the season. She struck out two and walked two while earning her first victory of the season.