Southern Illinois University
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Mississippi St
Softball Falls to Mississippi State, 5-3
02/16/2002 | 12:00:00 | Softball
Feb. 16, 2002
Starkville, Miss. - Mississippi State (8-2) turned in a pair of multi-run innings and used clutch pitching from a trio of its hurlers to hand Southern Illinois (2-1) a 5-3 loss earlier today at the Bulldog Classic. The loss marked SIU's first of the season.
Despite seeing its first two batters go down in order, SIU took a 2-0 lead in the second on a two-run blast by Katie Jordan.
Mississippi State then answered in the bottom half of the frame, using four hits, including a one-out triple by Iyhia McMichael, which plated a pair of runs to even the score at 2-2.
A pair of errors, coupled with Faith Robinson's clutch hit with two runners in scoring position, helped bring home a trio of runs to give the Bulldogs a 5-3 lead after three.
Adie Viefhaus' fourth-inning RBI single up the middle brought the Salukis to within two, but strong relief pitching by Kellie Wilkerson closed the door on the Dawgs.
Jordan went 1-for-2 with two RBI and one run scored for the game to lead the Salukis.
Melissa Massey entered the game in relief of Jennifer Nelson with the score even in the third and allowed one run in 2.2 innings of work to collect her first collegiate victory on the mound.
Wilkerson then struck out five batters over the final 2.1 innings to collect her third save of the game.
