Garza and Held power Softball in sweep of Saint Louis

Wednesday, April 22

St. Louis, Mo.

3:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

27-10

Saint Louis

18-25

Southern Illinois

Saint Louis

04/22/2009 | 12:00:00 | Softball

Box Score

Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score

April 22, 2009

By Kyle Herm
www.SIUSalukis.com

ST. LOUIS - The Southern Illinois softball team's (28-10) offense blossomed on Earth Day in a convincing 7-1, 5-0, doubleheader sweep of Saint Louis (18-26) at the Billiken Sports Center Wednesday afternoon.

The Salukis used a combination of power hitting and dominant pitching to regain confidence in the final two games of their season-long six-game road trip.

SIU's offense pounded a total of 20 hits, including two home runs, and tied a single-game season-high with three doubles in both games.

"It (the offense) really started with (Chelsea) Held, (Alicia) Garza, and (Haley) Gorman setting the tone at the top, and then some others jumped in behind," said head coach Kerri Blaylock. "We really hit the ball hard today and hit the ball really well."

The nine hits in game one, followed by 11 in game two were the most recorded in back-to-back games since the second week of the season.

The Indiana duo of Garza and Held were the offensive catalyst for the Salukis. The junior second baseman from Lafayette, Ind. went a combined 5-for-7 with six RBI, and the sophomore outfielder from Anderson, Ind. hit 4-for-6 with five runs scored, three RBI, two doubles and a home run.

Senior Katie Schmidt, from nearby Millstadt, Ill., also drilled a rare inside-the-park home run in the second game.

Not to be overlooked, senior Katie McNamara only allowed one run with eight strikeouts, one away from her career-high, in the opener and sophomore Nikki Waters pitched 6 1/3 four-hit innings of relief of starter Danielle Glosson with five strikeouts for the shutout in game two.

"I thought Mac (McNamara) settled down after a little trouble early, but really threw the ball well, "Blaylock said. "Then Nikki (Waters) came in because Danielle (Glosson) hurt her foot a little bit, so Nikki came in and finished that game off with throwing strikes and really threw with a lot of confidence."

Southern Illinois will look to take the momentum from the doubleheader sweep into Thursday's home game against Evansville at 4 p.m. at Charlotte West Stadium.

"We hope to get on a little bit of a roll, because we really haven't had consistent games with losing some to rain outs," Blaylock said. "It's nice to get things going again and hopefully we can string together some quality games like these."

Game One - Southern Illinois 7 Saint Louis 1
Junior Alicia Garza and sophomore Chelsea Held each had two hits and three RBI to propel the Salukis past SLU 7-1 in the doubleheader opener.

Southern broke a scoreless game in the top of the fourth on a run-scoring single by Garza.

Garza crushed a high fly ball to right field that dropped at the base of the fence and scored sophomore Chelsea Held from third to put the Salukis up 1-0.

SIU tacked on three more runs in the fifth on the first of two Saluki home runs of the day.

Katie Schmidt drew a leadoff walk, then Alicia Junker hit what appeared to be a line-out, but after reaching first the umpire ruled Junker safe and said the ball had hit the ground before SLU's first baseman caught the ball.

Instead of stepping on first to retire Junker, the inning stayed alive and a batter later Held crushed her fifth homer of the season to left-center field.

Southern added three more runs in the top of the seventh on a bases-loaded walk by Gorman, and Garza ripped a two-RBI single down the left-field line to give McNamara a comfortable 7-0 lead.

SLU pushed a run across in the bottom of the seventh on a groundout with a runner on third to break up McNamara's shutout, but she closed out the game without any more runs allowed for her ninth win of the year.

Game Two - Southern Illinois 5 Saint Louis 0
Southern Illinois sent nine batters to the plate en route to a five-hit, four-run top of the second to cruise past the Billikens in game two 5-0.

Senior Katie Schmidt started the big inning with a leadoff solo inside-the-park home run to dead-center field to jump-start the offensive surge.

Schmidt hit a towering fly to the deepest part of the park, and used a friendly bounce of the fence to motor around the bases for her fifth home run of the season.

To continue the rally, freshman Mallory Duran noticed no one was covering second base and turned a bunt into a double from heads-up base running. Senior Jayme Wamsley followed with a RBI-double to right-center field to give SIU a 2-0 lead.

Two batters later Alicia Garza finished the inning with a two-run single up the middle to put Southern in front 4-0.

To put an exclamation on their sensational day, Garza singled home Held one more time in the top of the sixth inning to make the final 5-0.

Although she did not get the start, Nikki Waters earned her 12th win after replacing Danielle Glosson in the first inning.

Waters tallied five strikeouts and issued only one walk to help secure the doubleheader sweep, and the team's 28th victory of the season.