SUNDAY'S SCORES
Eastern Illinois 2, @Tennessee State 1
@Tennessee Tech 2, Southeast Missouri 0
@Murray State 3, UT Martin 0
@Belmont 4, SIUE 2
Austin Peay 7, @Morehead State 4
@Morehead State 9, Austin Peay 1
EASTERN ILLINOIS 2, TENNESSEE STATE 1
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - In a weekend series that had all three games decided by one run, Eastern Illinois was able to have its two runs scored in the opening inning stand up as the Panthers won the final game at Tennessee State, 2-1, on Sunday afternoon at Tiger Field.
EIU scored its two runs in the first inning as Megan Burton drew a walk to open the game and moved around to third on a pair of stolen bases. Burton and Hannah Cravens would come around to score on an RBI single by Maddie Swart to center.
TSU cut the Panthers lead in half in the bottom of the fifth as Ryla Traylor had a one out double. She would come around to score on an RBI single by Alyssi Drayton. Those accounted for two of the three hits that EIU would allow in the contest.
Freshman Alexa Rehmeier was sharp in the circle throwing her second complete game of the weekend. Rehmeier had seven strikeouts while allowing the three hits with one walk. She improved to 7-3 on the season.
Caitlyn Manus suffered the loss for TSU in a complete game effort allowing just five EIU hits on the afternoon. Manus fell to 6-5.
Traylor was the lone player for either team with multiple hits going 2-for-3 for TSU as the Tigers fell to 11-18 overall, 2-4 in the OVC.
EIU improved to 17-14 overall, 4-2 in the OVC. Briana Gonzalez had a double for EIU joining Cravens, Swart, Jaylen Prichard and Lindy Milkowski who all had singles for the Panthers.
TENNESSEE TECH 2, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 0
COOKEVILLE, Tenn - Haeli Bryson didn’t record a strikeout until the seventh inning, but she didn’t need to. Her Tennessee Tech teammates behind her were playing stellar defense.
Stranding nine Southeast Missouri baserunners in the contest, the Golden Eagles were able to make a two-run lead stick and sweep the Redhawks with a 2-0 victory on Sunday at Tech Softball Field.
With the win, the Golden Eagles (20-9, 3-3 Ohio Valley Conference) reached 20 wins for the first time since the 2016 campaign – and there’s still over a month remaining in the regular season. The victory also gave Tech its first three-game sweep over SEMO since the 2006 season.
SEMO (14-13, 3-3 OVC) challenged the Tech defenders for sure. Bryson only had two 1-2-3 innings over the course of the contest, a nine-pitch third and a seven-pitch sixth. The Redhawks managed six hits and drew two walks, but the Golden Eagles only let one batter reach third in the contest.
Bryson ended the game with the complete-game shutout, yielding six hits while walking two and striking out two.
Marisa Davis took the tough-luck loss, throwing five frames and allowing one run on five hits, walking one and striking out none. Rachel Rook came on in relief in the sixth to try to limit any further damage, but Tech added another run in the frame on two hits. Rook also walked one and struck out another. SEMO also saw seven Golden Eagles stranded in the game.
Sydney Love-Baker and Savannah Talley both collected two hits in the contest, while Mackenzie Fitzgerald, Kaylan Cole and Shelby Penning had the other three base hits for the Golden Eagles.
Tech scored its first run on an infield single to SEMO first baseman Tori Bradley. She couldn’t get the ball to second baseman Kynzie Wrigley, who was covering first, in time for the out, but watching Love-Baker cross and Cole gunning for home, Wrigley fired to Sydney Melton at home to tag out Cole to prevent any further scores.
The insurance run for the Golden Eagles came in the sixth. Love-Baker hit a one-out double on a hard-hit ball that landed in front of the SEMO third baseman and skipped through. Cole drew a walk on a 12-pitch at-bat, then Talley hit a single into left field to get Love-Baker home.
SEMO had the 9-1-2 batters of the order coming up and the Redhawks elected to pinch-hit the first two. Tatum Gerwitz grounded out to Carmen Betts at first, then Aubrie Shore took a 3-1 lead in the count. Bryson found the location for strike two, then got Shore to swing on strike three for Bryson’s first punch-out of the game. Wrigley eyed a single through the middle, bringing up Kaylee Anderson, the Redhawks’ offensive leader to the plate.
Anderson looked at the first two pitches to fall behind 0-2, then Bryson’s throws sailed out to even the count. Finally, Bryson caught Anderson swinging to end the contest, claiming her third victory of the season.
The Golden Eagles return to action on Wednesday as they take on Morehead State in a midweek doubleheader.
MURRAY STATE 3, UT MARTIN 0
MURRAY, Ky. - The University of Tennessee at Martin softball team dropped its series finale by a final score of 3-0 at Ohio Valley Conference rival Murray State on Sunday to wrap up the three-game road series.
The Skyhawks (18-10, 3-3 OVC) tallied three hits on the afternoon. Three different players registered base knocks with Paige Clark, Kaitlyn Kelley and Kaci Fuller each reaching the hit column while Clark’s double marked the team’s lone extra-base hit.
Murray State (22-8, 6-0 OVC) came into the weekend as the hottest team in the league and lived up to the hype by pushing its winning streak out to 12 games. The Racers jumped out to an early advantage with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second inning as back-to-back hits by Jensen Striegel and Logan Braundmeier drove in two.
UT Martin’s best scoring opportunity came in the fourth inning when Clark led off the inning with a double down the right field line before later advancing to third on a single to left by Kelley. While runners sat on the corners with one out, back-to-back groundouts ended the inning.
After getting out of the jam in the top half of the inning unscathed, the Racers added the game’s final run in the bottom of the fourth as Lily Fischer launched her second solo home run in as many days to make it a 3-0 contest.
Alexis Groet (7-5) was hit with the loss after the starter gave up three earned runs in 3.1 innings of work. Erin Gallagher appeared in relief, pitching 2.2 scoreless innings where she struck out four and allowed just one hit in an impressive outing.
BELMONT 4, SIUE 2
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Belmont University Softball comes off the weekend with a clean sweep over the SIUE Cougars and ninth consecutive wins. The Bruins defeated the Cougars 4-2 in the final matchup of the series.
This 2022 Belmont team has tied the program record for most consecutive wins in a single season at nine. This record is tied with the 1995 team, the first ever Belmont Softball season, where they went on to become TCAC Champions. At the time Belmont University was not a Division I opponent, making this the program record for most consecutive wins in a single season as a Belmont Division I program.
With their win today the Bruins have accomplished their greatest start to conference play with six consecutive wins. The Bruins are here to play and they are not letting up any time soon.
It was a quiet, yet competitive first two innings between the Bruins and Cougars. Great plays were made and the pitching was strong on both ends to hold a 0-0 score.
The Cougars went up on the Bruins for the first time this weekend scoring off of a double, 1-0.
Belmont came back to take the lead in the bottom of the fifth scoring all four of their runs. Bases loaded by Abi Ledbetter, Kristen Green, and Alicia Veltri,Ollinger walked to bring in Ledbetter. Emma Barnes flew out to left field, Green's speed brought her home on the throw. Emily Cockrill posted a two RBI double, scoring Veltri and Ollinger.
The Bruins played fantastic defensively all weekend long against the Cougars. In the final matchup the Bruins posted no errors to secure the win.
Pitchers Alex Clesi and Emma Summers combined for six strikeouts allowing a single walk. Clesi totaled 26 strikes in 39 pitches while Summers posted 30 strikes in 46 pitches.
AUSTIN PEAY 7, MOREHEAD STATE 4; MOREHEAD STATE 9, AUSTIN PEAY 1
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Recap coming soon.