Wild day in Peoria leads to two wins

After tomorrow's game, Bradley has a home run derby scheduled in which three Braves will compete. In today's games, Southern and Bradley put on a pretty good preview of that home run derby.

The Salukis and Braves combined to score 37 runs and hit 10 home runs in Saturday's doubleheader. It was the Salukis that came out on top of the slugfest taking both games from the Braves to clinch the series with a game to play.

"I was super proud of our offense today. They kind of carried us," head coach Kerri Blaylock said. "Anytime we allowed them to get a lead, our offense countered right away. Brianna Jones threw very, very well. The offensive explosion in the second game allowed us to take two wins that we needed. It was a good day."

In game one, junior pitcher Brianna Jones got the start and allowed the Braves on the board first. In the bottom of the day's opening inning, Jones allowed a three-run home run, the first of five in the game.

Southern came right back in the next inning with an answer. With two outs in the inning, sophomore Kyleigh Decker hit her fourth home run of the year, and it was the longest hit ball of any Saluki this season. Decker's homer hit off the top of the scoreboard at Petersen Hotels Field at the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex.

"The tone for the whole day was set when Kyleigh hit the ball off the scoreboard," Blaylock said. "It unloaded everything in the first game."

Later in the frame, senior Savannah Fisher, who was making her first start in left field this season, tied the game with a two-run homer to left that scored fellow senior Sydney Jones who singled in the at-bat before.

The home run was Fisher's sixth of the season, which set a new single-season best for Fisher. Later in the day, she would plate her 20^th RBI of the season, which is also a single-season high.

Bradley and Southern did not score again until the fifth inning thanks in part to Jones's stellar pitching. She had a rocky first inning, but settled after and allowed only three hits after the first inning.

In the top of the fifth inning, the Salukis took their first lead of the day when freshman Megan Brown doubled to center to score fellow freshman Jenny Jansen who reached on a fielder's choice in the previous at-bat.

In the bottom of the sixth, Bradley tied the game thanks to an Allison Apke homer.

In the top of the seventh, the Saluki offense answered again when sophomore Katelyn Massa hit a solo-home run to right to put Southern on top for good.

The win in game one snapped a three-game losing streak. Jones won her 19^th game of the season while striking out four, walking one and allowing five hits. The win was also Blaylock's 650^th of her career.

Game two of the double header was an absolute slugfest. Sophomore Maddy Vermejan homered in the first two innings to give Southern four runs. Bradley homered in the first, a three-run shot to make the game 4-3 through two innings.

In the fourth inning, Bradley scored five runs on four hits to try to pull away, but Southern answered back in the top of the fifth. First, Jansen doubled to score Senior Brittany Turner from first after she pinch ran for Massa. In the next at-bat, Decker struck again this time with a double to score Jansen. Fisher closed out the scoring in the inning after she hit a bloop single to right that Bradley's right fielder misplayed to allow Brown and Decker to score to make the score 8-8.

In the sixth, the Salukis took the lead after Decker singled to score Massa from second to make the score 9-8.

Bradley equalized with an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth.

In the top of the seventh, Southern put on one of the most impressive displays of offensive in program history. Sydney Jones led the inning off with a single and Brown followed it with a walk. Two batters later, sophomore Susie Baranski hit a single to load the bases. Freshman Maris Boelens drew a walk to give the Salukis a 10-9 lead.

In the next at-bat, Vermejan made history with the swing of a bat when she doubled into the gap in left-center to score Boelens, Baranski and freshman Meredith Wernig who pinch ran for Massa. The three RBIs gave Vermejan a total of seven to tie a single-game program record. She is only the second player in program history to do so. Karrie Irvin had seven RBI against Bradley nearly 25-years ago to the date on April 24, 1993. Vermejan's historic hit gave the Salukis a 13-9 lead. Vermejan's stellar day gave her the third and fourth home runs of the season and moved her to her 24^th RBI on the year.

In the next at-bat Massa singled through the left side to score Vermejan and make the score 14-9. Massa's two RBIs on the day moved her to just nine short of a tie for the single-season record. She has 42, the program record is 51.

Two batters later, Sydney Jones hit into a fielder's choice to score Jansen to make the score 15-9.

In the next at-bat senior Haley Andrus stepped in to pinch hit and hit her first home run of the season, a three RBI bomb to center to make the score 18-9.

When it was all said and done, Southern scored nine runs on six hits and two errors in the seventh inning.

Bradley hit a solo home run in the bottom of the frame, but couldn't muster much else to allow Southern to earn a 18-10 victory. Brianna Jones, who entered in the sixth, earned the win to make her 20-7 on the year. This is the second time in her career she's been a 20-game winner. She won 23 games in her freshman season.

The 18 runs in game two were the most in the Kerri Blaylock era and the most since March 29, 1995 when the Salukis scored 18 against Saint Louis. The program record for runs in a game is 24. Southern did so against Tulsa on April 16, 1993 in just a four-inning game.

More importantly, the win earned Southern its first back-to-back victories since the beginning of April. Southern beat Valparaiso 9-6 on March 30, then beat SEMO 2-1 on April 5.

"Sometimes when you're not playing very well, it's because things aren't going your way. I felt like at Missouri State, our offense was so good, but we didn't clean up some other things," Blaylock said. "Now I feel like it was a total effort. We had people diving for balls. Jenny Jansen did a great job at short a Savannah Fisher came up with a huge catch in left. That helped. We made our own breaks today."

Southern goes for the sweep of Bradley tomorrow in an 11 a.m. game.

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Katelyn Massa

Susie Baranski

Maris Boelens

Megan Brown

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