Southeast Missouri 1, Samford 2 Box Score
Southeast Missouri 7, Nicholls State 8 Box Score
SOUTHAVEN, Miss. - Southeast Missouri (3-5) dropped both games at day two of the Blues City Classic Saturday; falling to Samford (5-5) 1-2 in eight innings, and Nicholls State (6-5) 7-8 in walk-off fashion.
Southeast Missouri 1, Samford 2 (8 innings)
The Bulldogs jumped out to a quick 0-1 lead on an RBI double off the bat of Kayla Shaffer.
Hot off a 4-for-5 performance Friday night, Taylor Cowan hit an RBI double to right to bring Simone Patterson home and tie the game at 1-1 in the Redhawk's half of the first.
With the game tied through the seventh inning, the game went in to extra innings for the second game in a row.
With the international tie-breaker rule in effect, the Bulldog runner placed on second scored on a sacrifice fly to right field and went up 1-2 on Southeast.
The Redhawks could not capitalize with runners on second and third in their half of the eighth, ending the game.
Southeast tied Samford in hits with six hits each. S. Patterson went 2-for-4 in the game and scored a run.
Cowan (1-3) pitched her second complete game of the season, going eight innings, giving up two runs, on six hits, striking out three, walking none.
Mollie Hanson (3-4) pitched a complete game for the Bulldogs giving up one run on one hit, striking 13 Redhawk batters out and walking only one.
Southeast is now 6-12 against Samford all-time.
Southeast Missouri 7, Nicholls State 8
The Redhawks got on the board in the top of the first on an RBI double off the bat of Cowan followed by an RBI single off the bat of Savannah Carpenter to go up 2-0 on the Colonels. In each game of the Blues City Classic, Cowan's first at-bat has been an RBI double.
Nicholls wasted no time scoring when Brittany Marcett hit an RBI single; followed by a hit and an error to score two and take the lead 3-2.
Southeast added two runs in the second, two in the third, and one in the fourth. Lindsey Patterson tripled to plate Kaitlin Zink and S. Patterson in the second. Southeast added two runs on a fielding error by the shortstop in the third to increase the lead, 6-3, followed by Xia Wilson bringing Carpenter home in the fourth, extending the lead to 7-3.
The Colonels narrowed the Redhawk lead to 7-4 in the sixth on an RBI single from Maggie Bryan.
Nicholls pieced together a walk-off win in the bottom of the seventh that started with an RBI single followed by a triple and an error to allow the Colonels to pull ahead and nab the win.
Head coach Lana Richmond had this to say: “We had chances to really pull away but our lack of urgency from the fourth on prevented us from having runners on the bases. Our defense was consistent in giving up free bases while mental mistakes prevented us from making the fundamental plays we needed to make.”
The Colonels out-hit Southeast 11-7 in the contest. Elysia Mesa went 2-for-3 with a run scored for the Redhawks.
Marcett went 3-for-4 with two RBI and scored twice for the Colonels.
After coming in to face the last batter of the game, L. Patterson (1-1) recorded the loss for Southeast.
Hannah Haydel (2-2) got the win for the Colonels going 5.2 innings in relief.
Southeast will play Mississippi State on Sunday at 9 a.m. followed by the tournament finale against host-school Memphis at 2:30 p.m.
