Salukis split doubleheader, snap Wichita's 12-game winning streak

Saturday, May 7

Wichita, Kan.

12:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

31-18, 0

Wichita State

33-18, 0

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Southern Illinois	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	4	9	0
Wichita State	0	0	2	1	2	0	X	5	10	0

Salukis split doubleheader, snap Wichita's 12-game winning streak

05/07/2016 | 12:00:00 | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

May 7, 2016

By John Lock
SIUSalukis.com

G1 Box | G2 Box

WICHITA, Kan. - The Southern Illinois softball team split a doubleheader at Wichita State on Saturday. After falling 5-4 in a back-and-forth opener, SIU (32-18, 15-10 MVC) run-ruled the Shockers 11-3 in five innings in the second game to snap the Shockers 12-game winning streak.

"We played well all day today," SIU head coach Kerri Blaylock said. "We were ready to go. You have to give Wichita credit; they're a phenomenal offensive team, and that first game was just a battle. But I give our kids all the credit in the world for the way they came back the second game and played so well."

In the opener, Wichita State (33-19, 18-6 MVC) scored two in the third inning, and Southern responded with a two-run homer by Savannah Fisher to tie the game in the fourth. The Shockers scored another in the bottom half, but SIU battled back again to take the lead in the next half-inning. WSU's Brittany Fortner homered in the fifth to give WSU the lead for good and its second outright MVC title in the last three seasons.

Southern's bats stayed hot in the second game. After Kelsey Gonzalez was robbed of a leadoff hit on a diving catch by Fortner, SIU recorded six-straight hits. The fourth hit was a three-run home run by Merri Anne Patterson that cleared the scoreboard and a tree behind the left-field fence.

"Merri Anne's bomb--that was a monstrous shot," Blaylock said. "That started us. We picked away and got runs throughout the whole game, and (Savanna) Dover threw really well again."

SIU's win in the second game snapped a 12-game winning streak for Wichita State, the second-longest winning streak in Wichita State history; the Shockers hadn't lost a Valley game in a month.

Dover (9-7) got the win and struck out six over five innings. Her incredible streak of 579 consecutive batters faced without allowing a home run was snapped by Cacy Williams in the third inning, but Dover held down the most potent offense in the MVC and improved to 7-2 in Valley play.

After the Salukis batted around in the first inning, they did it again in a five-run second frame. Hanna Porter collected two RBIs in the inning and Hanna Stam picked up her first MVC RBI, as well. Shaye Harre added a two-RBI single in the fifth inning and extended her hit streak to nine games.

"The kids were locked in," Blaylock said. "They were very calm and wanted to play well. Since the Evansville doubleheader that we dropped at home, our job has been to be playing well going into the conference tournament, and our kids are doing that."

SIU has won seven of its last nine games headed into tomorrow's series finale. First pitch has been moved up to 11 a.m. to try to beat forecasted rain in the early afternoon. With the game-two win, SIU clinched a first-round bye in the MVC Tournament. With an SIU win or a Northern Iowa loss tomorrow, SIU will be the No. 3 seed.

NOTES: Every SIU player who had a plate appearance recorded at least one hit...Hanna Porter, Sydney Jones, Kelsey Gonzalez, Shaye Harre and Jessica Heese all had multi-hit days...Over the two games, SIU hit .396, slugged .566 and reached at a .492 clip...SIU's 11 runs in the second game tied for the most scored against Wichita State all season...Wichita State had only been run-ruled three times all season before SIU did it today, and all three previous times came against ranked teams...Savanna Dover allowed her first home run of the season, snapping a string of 579 consecutive batters faced without allowing a home run...Shaye Harre hit in both games to extend her hitting streak to nine games...Harre has drawn 25 walks in MVC play, one walk away from becoming the first MVC player since 2003 to average 1.0 walks drawn per game in the league...Kelsey Gonzalez reached in both games to extend her reached base streak to 11 games.