SIU Tops Racers In Slugfest

Thursday, April 7

Racer Field

3:30 p.m.

Murray State

14-19

Southern Illinois

21-11

Southern Ill.

Murray St.

Photo by: Patti Twaddle

4/7/2016 7:09:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

Despite outhitting Southern Illinois, the Murray State softball team fell 10-5, Thursday afternoon at Racer Field in Murray. The two teams combined for 25 hits in the contest with the Racers holding a 14-11 advantage. Six of MSU's 14 hits on the day went down as doubles, which is a new Murray State single-game record, surpassing the previous record of five which had been accomplished six times.

The Salukis (21-11) went right to work in the opening stanza, scoring three runs off of five hits and a Murray State error to take an early 3-0 lead. SIU would add another run in the top of the third on a RBI double by Hanna Porter to make it 4-0.

In the bottom of that inning, however, Murray State (14-19) finally got on the board with an RBI-single from Jessica Twaddle that scored Shelbey Miller, who led off the inning with a double. The Racers further closed the gap to 4-2 in the fourth when Maggie Glass hit her second of three doubles in the game to score Madison Culver, who also doubled to get on base. The three doubles by Glass tied the individual record for most doubles in a game that was set by Casey Castile against Bowling Green in 2013.

Trailing by just two, things came unraveled for the Racers in the sixth as the bats once again came alive for SIU. The Salukis scored six unearned runs on five hits and an MSU error in the inning, with five of the runs being scored with two outs.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Racers added three runs on a based loaded hit by pitch from Miller and a two-RBI single from Twaddle to cut the lead to 10-5. However, SIU was able to quash any thoughts of a comeback by the Racers in the seventh and held on for the 10-5 win.

Glass led MSU in the game by going 3-for-4 with three doubles, a run and a RBI, while Twaddle was 2-for-4 with three RBIs. Leah Kesel and Cayla Levins were both 2-for-4 in the game, while Erika Downey was 2-for-2 with a two runs and a double.

Haven Campbell allowed two earned runs on six hits over 2.1 innings to fall to 4-5 with the loss for the Racers. For SIU, Brianna Jones closed out the game and earned her 16^th win of the year by allowing three runs on five hits with four strikeouts and no walks over the final four innings.

The Racers return to OVC play this weekend when they travel to Tennessee State Saturday and host Belmont Sunday. Both doubleheaders are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.