Southern Illinois University
38-20
Creighton
37-21
Softball drops close contest against Creighton in MVC Championship game
05/15/2010 | 12:00:00 | Softball
May 15, 2010
By Beth Miller
www.SIUSalukis.com
DES MOINES, Iowa - The Southern Illinois Softball team fought a tough battle with Creighton at the 2010 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Championship game, Saturday at Buel Field.
The Salukis (38-20) scored two runs off the Bluejays (37-21), but fell to a final score of 3-2.
Creighton got on the board early, gaining a 1-0 lead over Southern Illinois in the top of the first inning. Renae Sinkler doubled in her first at-bat, and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Amy Baker singled, driving in Sinkler for the 1-0 lead.
After a few quiet innings, the Salukis came alive in the bottom of the fourth as Alicia Garza walked to lead off the bottom of the inning and advanced to second off the sacrifice bunt by Allie Hanson. Cristina Trapani came up big, with a line drive that popped off the glove of the short stop allowing Garza to score from second, tying the game at 1-1.
Creighton answered in the top of the fifth, as Sinkler powered a two-run home run over the right field wall for a 3-1 lead over the Salukis.
With two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Hanson and Trapani provided back-to-back hits, but SIU was unable to score any runs heading into the final inning trailing, 3-1.
The Salukis rallied in the bottom of the seventh inning, putting one more run on the board to close the gap, 3-2. Chelsea Held walked followed by a single up the middle from Alicia Junker. Haley Gorman provided the sacrifice bunt that advanced Held and Sydney Shelton, who was pinch running for Junker. With runners on second and third, Bluejay catcher, Lauren Larson allowed a passed ball, scoring Held from third. Garza drew another walk from Tara Oltman, but a pop-up in foul territory ended the inning as SIU fell, 3-2.
"The kids gave me everything they had," head coach Kerri Blaylock said. "We had opportunities and I thought they laid it all out on the line. We're resilient, we came back and we fought hard. I'm proud of them."
Glosson pitched her third complete game of the weekend, striking out four at the plate. The 2010 MVC Pitcher of the Year tossed a total of 30.2 innings, striking out 39 batters and allowing only six runs in four appearances.
"I'm really proud of Danielle," Blaylock said. "She threw a lot of innings, a lot of pitches and did a great job holding them in check. She had a great weekend."
Trapani hit .308 at the tournament, with two home runs and 10 total bases. The junior catcher hit a two-run walk off home run in the tenth inning against Missouri State on Friday, defeating the Bears, 2-0. Hanson led the team in hitting with a .333 average, while Held hit .273 with three runs, and three extra-base hits.
Glosson, Trapani and Hanson were named to the 2010 State Farm MVC Championship all-tournament team.
Southern Illinois will await the announcement of the 2010 NCAA Tournament field broadcasted on ESPNU at 9 p.m. CT on Sunday to see if they will receive an at-large bid into one of the 16 regionals.
"We will just wait and see," Blaylock said. "I hope that we did enough during the regular season to deserve a shot."
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Oltman (32-12)
L: Glosson, Danielle (25-14)
Batting:
2B: Sinkler 1
HR: Sinkler 1
RBI: Sinkler 2 ; Baker, Amy 1
SH: Koch 1 ; Graner 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Sinkler 2 ; Jadlowski 1
CS: Martin, Danai 1 ; Ruf, Christa 1
Batting:
2B: HELD, Chelsea 1
SH: Gorman, Haley 1 ; Hanson, Allie 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Garza, Alicia 1 ; HELD, Chelsea 1
