 "Photo: Lane Christiansen ~ Daily Egyptian")
One day after running circles around Saint Louis in a doubleheader sweep, the SIU softball team returned home only to be upended by Evansville.
The Purple Aces used a 10-hit effort, including a pair of home runs, to beat SIU, 8-2. The Salukis were able to smack around nine hits off Evansville’s pitching but left a small village on the base paths as they were only able to push across two runs.
“The problem is that we have got to understand that it’s OK if teams score runs against us,” SIU head coach Kerri Blaylock said. “And we’ve got to be able to play 5-4, 6-5 ballgames without going in the tank.”
Senior third baseman Katie Wagner opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly to right field, which scored sophomore center fielder Chelsea Held, giving SIU an early 1-0 lead.
But the lead was short-lived as Purple Aces starting pitcher Kylie Wagner helped her own cause, delivering a three-run home run off the right field scoreboard off Saluki senior starting pitcher Katie McNamara giving Evansville a 3-1 lead.
Sophomore Nikki Waters, who cruised through the Purple Aces lineup after relieving McNamara in the third, encountered a heap of trouble in the top half of the fifth inning.
Purple Aces catcher Krista Price, who scored in front of Kylie Wagner’s third inning homer, sent a blast of her own over the left field wall, which started a big inning. Waters would go on to load the bases with nobody out before giving way to fellow sophomore Danielle Glosson. The Salukis third pitcher allowed a run scoring sacrifice fly and a two-run single to end the inning’s scoring.
Evansville pushed across a single run in the top of the seventh inning to make it 8-1.
SIU did not go down quietly in the bottom of the final frame as it loaded the bases and scored on a sacrifice fly by Mallory Duran, but it was the only run the team would score in the inning.
Blaylock said it was disappointing to see the team come out flat after picking up a doubleheader sweep of Saint Louis to end its six-game road trip, but could not find the words to explain it.
“If I had all the answers I’d make a million bucks and I’d sell coaching books, but that’s just the way I can put it. I don’t know how else to say it. It’s very disappointing,” Blaylock said.
SIU returns to the diamond at noon on Saturday as it hosts Bradley on senior weekend.
