Doing the Split

The Sycamores split their home opening double-header Wednesday evening with the Southeast Missouri Redhawks. SEMO took the opening contest 5-3 in extra innings, but ISU bounced back to win the second contest by a 4-2 score.

In the opener, ISU got another strong pitching performance from Sr. Meagan McCurdy, as she struck out 11 in 7 1/3 innings allowing only 2 earned runs. ISU fell behind 2-0 in the contest, with a very costly two out error in the top of the third inning allowing SEMO to get the first run on the board. After trailing 2-0 through five innings, ISU answered with two runs in the bottom of the sixth to tie the contest at 2-2. Neither team scored in the 7th inning, forcing the use of the International Tie Breaker rule in the 8th. This places a runner on 2nd base to start the inning. Some sloppy defense led to SEMO getting three runs across the plate in their half of the 8th, and ISU only managed to get one run in the bottom of the inning, as the game ended with the bases loaded for the Sycamores. For the contest, ISU pounded out seven hits (from seven different players) and stranded 11 runners on base.

The second game started out similar to the first, with ISU falling behind 2-0 to the Redhawks. After sitting out the last couple of weeks with an injury, Fr. Sara Evans was the starting pitcher for ISU, lasting 4 innings while giving up both runs. Evans struck out five while allowing four hits. So. Lindsey Beisser came on to pitch beginning in the 5th, and limited SEMO to only two more hits in the final three innings while striking out three. In the bottom of the 4th, the Sycamores finally got on the board, with a two out rally to score two runs and tie the game at 2-2. The big blow in the inning was a triple by So. Alyssa Doyle to knock in the two runs. ISU then added a single run in the 5th and one more in the 6th to make the final score 4-2. ISU had nine hits in the contest, led Fr. Kelly Szablewski going 2-3 and So. Alyssa Doyle going 2-4. With the split, ISU moved to 11-6 on the season.

GO SYCAMORES!