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BRACKET | CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL
The 2023 Ohio Valley Conference Softball Championship continued on Friday with four games.
Eastern Illinois and SIUE won games to advance to Saturday's Championship Round.
The entire tournament is being held at
Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Alabama, and streamed on ESPN+.
Game 8 - #1 Southeast Missouri 4, #6 Tenneessee State 2
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Game 9 - #5 SIUE 4, #1 Southeast Missouri 0
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Game 10 - #2 Eastern Illinois 1, #4 UT Martin 0
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Game 11 - #5 SIUE 4, #4 UT Martin 2
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#1 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 4, #6 TENNESSEE STATE 2
OXFORD, Ala. - Paige Halliwill and Aubrie Shore each had two hits as #1 Southeast Missouri (29-13) eliminated #6 Tennessee State (22-26-1) with a 4-2 victory Friday at the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.
SEMO went to work against Second-Team All-OVC pitcher Caitlyn Manus.
Jillian Anderson led the game off with a single and went to second on a base hit by First-Team All-OVC outfielder Paige Halliwill. Sydney Dennis, a Second-Team All-Conference selection advanced the runners on a sacrifice bunt. Alyson Tucker flied out to right and Anderson scored to give the Redhawks a 1-0 edge.
TSU quickly answered when Ryla Traylor hit the second pitch of her at-bat over the left field wall to tie the game in the bottom of the first.
SEMO regained the lead in the fourth inning and didn't trail again.
Shore singled up the middle and pinch-runner Kileigh Grisham entered the game. Grisham stole second and scored the go-ahead run on an error after Kat Sackett flied out in foul territory.
Two innings later, Co-OVC Player of the Year Shore scored Tucker on a hard hit double that smacked off the glove of center fielder Mikayla Duke to push the Redhawks lead to 3-1.
TSU had runners on first and second with one out in the bottom of the sixth when Kynzie Wrigley made a nice defensive play. Wrigley charged in and fielded a ground ball by Jasmine Blackburn. After electing not to throw to first, Wrigley turned and threw out Onnika Spencer who was off the base at third. Marisa Davis then got Peyton Fointno to fly out ending the threat.
The Redhawks tacked on their final run in the top of the seventh. Freshman Brittany Affolter, who made a diving catch in left field earlier in the game, singled, stole second and went to third on an error. Halliwill followed with a sacrifice fly to right and Affolter scored to make it 4-1.
The Tigers brought the tying run to the plate during their final at-bat with runners on first and second and no outs. Davis, however, retired the next three TSU hitters to nail down her third save.
Kell (14-3) earned the win going 4.1 innings. She allowed just one run on three hits, struck out two and walked two. Davis pitched the last 2.2 innings out of the bullpen giving up one run on four hits.
SEMO outhit TSU, 8-7, with Halliwill and Shore getting two hits apiece to lead the way.
Manus (16-14) took the loss. She went the distance allowing four runs on eight hits.
#5 SIUE 4, #1 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 0
OXFORD, Ala. - SIUE softball's Sydney Baalman threw her second shutout of the Ohio Valley Conference Championships Friday as the Cougars eliminated top-seeded Southeast Missouri 4-0.
The Cougars, 29-25, will now take on UT Martin in an elimination game at approximately 7:30 p.m. The Skyhawks previously sent SIUE to the consolation bracket in an 8-5 contest yesterday. Eastern Illinois sent UT Martin to the consolation bracket with a thrilling 1-0 win.
Grace Lueke was the offensive hero for the Cougars against SEMO, blasting a two-run home run in the first inning with Emma Neuman on base.
The Cougars added two insurance runs in the fifth on a an RBI single by Lexi King and double steal by Paige Rocha and King in which Rocha scored.
Baalman scattered nine hits for her seventh complete-game shutout of the season. She is now 16-8.
#2 EASTERN ILLNIOIS 1, #4 UT MARTIN 0
OXFORD, Ala. - Eastern Illinois is heading to the Ohio Valley Conference softball championship game for the first time since 1999 as the Panthers had a 1-0 win over UT Martin in the Friday winner's bracket game on Friday.
Aniya Holt came through with a pinch-hit single to left center field in the top of the seventh as the Panthers pushed across the only run of the game.
Lindy Milkowski opened the seventh with a single up the middle with Riley Dittmar coming in to pinch-run. Dittmar moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Amber Cieplinski and then to third on a ground out in the infield by Morgan Lewis. Holt then delivered the game winning pinch-hit with two outs. Briana Gonzalez followed with a single and Kallie Pickens made a nice defensive play on a hard-hit ball down the third base line by EIU pinch-hitter Macey McElravy to end the inning.
In the circle Olivia Price was solid for the second straight game as she scattered four UT Martin hits to improve to 15-4 on the season. Katie Dreiling (13-8) allowed five hits for the Skyhawks to take the loss.
Gonzalez was 2-for-3 for the Panthers. Kaci Fuller had two hits for UTM.
EIU will play for the OVC Championship on Saturday with an 11 am game against the winner of the SIUE/UT Martin game on Friday evening.
EIU won the regular season OVC championship in 2011 and 2013 but did not advance to the OVC Tournament Championship in either year. EIU did finish as the OVC Tournament runner-up in 1997, 1998 and 1999.
SIUE 4, UT MARTIN 2
OXFORD, Ala. - SIUE softball eliminated its fourth team of the 2023 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Saturday with a thrilling 4-2 victory over UT Martin.
The Cougars, 30-25, now advance to the title round of the tournament against second-seeded Eastern Illinois. Since EIU has not yet lost a tournament game after wins over Southern Indiana and UT Martin, the Cougars must defeat the No. 2-seeded Panthers twice Saturday to win the league tournament.
SIUE previously ousted No. 8 Morehead State, No. 3 Southern Indiana and No. 1 Southeast Missouri along with No. 4 UT Martin.
The fifth-seeded Cougars once again turned to junior Sydney Baalman. It was the fourth win of the tournament for Baalman, who has a 0.82 earned run average and 22 strikeouts in 25 2/3 innings pitched at the OVC Championships.
A 17-game winner, Baalman yielded just five hits to UT Martin. A two-out, two-run double in the top of the fifth inning by UT Martin's Kallie Pickens was the only offense for the Skyhawks, which closed out the season with a 23-24 record.
SIUE's offense came through for Baalman. Piper Montgomery singled home Micah Arps in the second inning and added a sacrifice fly in the fourth.
After Pickens tied the game, SIUE responded in the bottom of the fifth.
Lexi King singled and moved to second on a wild pitch by UT Martin's Emily Brown. Grace Lueke then slashed a ball up the middle to score King uncontested. With Jenna Herron pinch-running for Lueke, Herron moved to second on another wild pitch. Hayley Palm then made it 4-2 with a single to right field.