Southern splits with Creighton and Bucknell

Monday, March 9

Winter Haven, Fla.

9:00 AM

Southern Illinois University

4-9-1

Creighton

6-4

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Creighton	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	3	7	1
Southern Illinois	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	5	0

03/09/2015 | 12:00:00 | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

March 9, 2015

By John Lock
SIUSalukis.com

Creighton Box Score | Bucknell Box Score

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - The Southern Illinois softball program split a doubleheader at Polk State's Diamond Plex on Monday, losing to Creighton 3-1 before beating Bucknell 8-1. SIU (5-9-1) finished its three-game Florida swing at 2-1 and allowed three or fewer runs in all three games.

SIU had allowed three or fewer runs only once before its Florida trip that began with a 3-2 win over Northern Illinois yesterday. After today, the Salukis have done it three-straight times.

"You hope so," head coach Kerri Blaylock said when asked if the pitchers had turned a corner. "Savanna (Dover) threw well enough to win today; she did what we wanted her to do. Bertie (Katie Bertelsen) is just gutsy. She may be tired or a little dinged, but she just keeps on going."

Dover threw her first career complete game in the opener against Creighton. Dover scattered seven hits over seven innings and struck out five, but Southern's offense struggled to generate anything against Creighton starter Sydnee Eck.

Eck only allowed only five hits--three of which came from Brook Womack. The Chattanooga, Tenn., native had eight hits in her career before going 6-for-8 with three RBIs over the course of today's doubleheader.

"Brook Womack had a great day today," Blaylock said. "Her, Savannah Fisher, and Sydney Jones are leading a group of hitters who are really swinging the bat well."

Jones picked up Southern's only RBI single against Creighton in the loss, and she would add two more hits against Bucknell to extend her reached base streak to a team-leading 13 games. Fisher, the team's other Florida native playing in her home state in addition to Jones, went 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI triple against Bucknell.

While Southern's offense generated just two runs in the first 12 innings of the day, it blew up a 1-1 tie against Bucknell with a six-run sixth. SIU picked up five hits in the innings; and Fisher, Kelsey Gonzalez, Jones, Womack and Merri Anne Patterson all drove in a run in the inning.

"We're explosive offensively, and we still have a couple of our better hitters who aren't swinging the bat well," Blaylock said. "But we're young and explosive. We get after it."

Bertelsen threw her second-straight complete game and got her 34th career victory, just one away from becoming the ninth player in SIU history with 35 or more career wins.

"Our energy really picked up in the second game," Blaylock said. "I'm really proud of the way Bertie fought; she's starting to throw really well right now. We played great defense and hit the ball really well."

SIU committed just two errors all weekend after committing at least two in eight of the season's first 12 games. After a 12-day layoff threw off the squad's schedule, the Salukis may be turning the corner at the right time; only Wednesday's game at Lipscomb precedes the Missouri Valley Conference opener, which is Saturday against Bradley at Dr. Charlotte West Stadium.

"We're playing better defense," Blaylock said. "We're doing the little things. We needed to get this consistency, so I'm glad we were able to come down to Florida and get these games in."

UP NEXT: Southern travels to Lipscomb for a game on Wednesday at 3 p.m. CT. After that, SIU has its home and conference opener when Bradley comes to Carbondale for three games on March 14-15.

NOTES: Sydney Jones has reached base in 13-straight games and 14 of her 15 collegiate games...Brook Womack had 8 career hits before today (48 AB) and six hits today (8 AB)...Womack is 8-for-13 in her last four games, improving her season batting average from .120 to .289...Shaye Harre went 3-for-3 against Bucknell, her team-leading fifth multi-hit game of the season...Savannah Fisher hit her second triple of the season; she's the only player in the MVC with more than one triple this year.