PEORIA, Ill. – #5 Southeast Missouri (21-28) erupted for six runs in the bottom of the second inning to storm past #8 Western Illinois (14-32), 10-2, Wednesday in the first round of the Ohio Valley Conference Softball Tournament.
SEMO eliminated WIU and advances to play #4 Lindenwood at 5:30 p.m., CT tonight. The tournament will now be double elimination for the Redhawks the rest of the way.
Tied, 1-1, SEMO sent 11 hitters to the plate during their decisive second-inning surge.
Sydney Miles started things off with a single and
Addy Martinie followed with a home run to left field.
Brittany Affolter singled, stole second and went to third on a base hit by
Kamden Hutton. After
Madison Winkler singled to load the bases,
Aubrie Shore reached on a fielder's choice.
With two outs,
Raigan Brannon ripped a single through the left side to score Winkler and Hutton. Shore then scored on a wild pitch and Peoria native
Gracie Luna followed with an RBI-double to extend the Redhawks lead to 7-1.
SEMO scored the game's first run on a sacrifice fly by Brannon in the bottom of the first.
The Leathernecks answered with a two-out run-scoring single by Alijah Williams to tie the game in the top of the second.
Offensively, SEMO outhit WIU, 13-5, and notched double-digit hits for the fifth time in its last seven contests.
Martinie and Brannon both went 3-for-3 to lead the way. Martinie had a home run, one run scored and two RBI, while Brannon added a double, one run scored and game-high four RBI. Additionally, Brannon pushed her hitting streak to 14 games.
Winkler and Luna contributed two hits apiece.
Elliott Stinson (6-7), this week's OVC Pitcher of the Week, pitched her first complete game of the season and earned her third-straight victory in the circle.
Stinson gave up just two runs on five hits, walked three and struck out one in seven innings. She improved to 2-1 with two complete games in three starts at the OVC Tournament in her career.
Lillie Wools (5-9) took the loss. Wools was roughed up for seven runs on eight hits in only 1.2 innings.
With the victory, SEMO pushed its winning streak to seven games.
