PEORIA, Ill. – #3 Southeast Missouri (27-19) ended its season with a 6-3 loss to #2 SIU Edwardsville (31-21) Friday night at the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.
SEMO, which went 3-2 at this year's eight-team event, fell one win shy of reaching the championship round. Instead, SIUE advances to face #1 Eastern Illinois for this year's title Saturday.
The Redhawks made things interesting in the bottom of the seventh inning when they brought the tying run to the plate with two outs.
With one run already in on a
Sydney Melton double, SEMO later had runners at first and second with its RBI leader
Brooklyn Saysoff at the plate. On the fifth pitch of her at-bat, McKayla Anderson got Saysoff to ground out to short and hold off the Redhawks.
SIUE jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first inning when Reagan Duncan hit a two-out double to left center and Emma Henderson scored.
SEMO quickly countered to take the lead when
Addisyn Martinie doubled to left center and
Brittany Affolter scored. A fielder's choice and an error helped Martinie cross home plate to give the Redhawks a 2-1 edge.
The Cougars regained the lead in the bottom of the third with a solo home run by Emma Henderson. A pair of errors set up SIUE's next run which came when Lauryn Yslava stole home on the front end of a double steal.
An RBI-triple by Juztyne Torres and sacrifice fly Kaylynn Salyars pushed SIUE's lead to 5-2 in the bottom of the fourth.
SIUE tacked on its last run on a two-out double by Kaylin Fahy in the fifth inning.
Anderson (7-8) gave up three runs on six hits, walked three and struck out one in seven innings.
Elliott Stinson (5-2) took the loss. Stinson scattered three hits and allowed three runs, walked one and struck out two in 2.2 innings.
SIUE edged SEMO, 7-6, in the hit column.
Melton went 2-for-4 with a double and one RBI to lead the Redhawks.
For the tournament, Melton hit a team-best .444 with eight hits, five doubles, two runs scored, six RBI, a .722 slugging percentage and .444 on-base percentage in five starts.
