Jansen’s walk-off home run leads Salukis to 3-1 win over Aces

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CARBONDALE, Ill. — Jenny Jansen hit a two-run, walk-off home run to lead the Southern Illinois University softball team to a 3-1 win over the Evansville Purple Aces on Saturday, April 10 inside Charlotte West Stadium.

Jansen, who hit in the two-hole for the first time in her collegiate career Saturday, turned on a 1-0 offering from Evansville's Izzy Vetter and put it over the fence in left to give Southern its ninth-straight win over the Aces. It was Jansen's fifth home run of the season and her first walk-off home run since she hit a two-run blast to defeat UNI, 4-2 on May 5, 2018.

"It was my fourth at-bat so I was just trying to make an adjustment and push something through," Jansen said of her walk-off home run. "Right before my at-bat, Kerri came up and said 'do you remember your freshman year when you hit that walk-off against UNI? Let's do it again.' I think Kerri's manifestation helped a lot."

"I told her before she went up to the plate in the seventh, 'do you remember the Northern Iowa game your freshman year,' when she hit a walk-off home run," head coach Kerri Blaylock said. "She did it. We believe in all of them they just have to get it done."

Jansen's heroics backed a terrific performance in the circle by sophomore hurler Sarah Harness. Harness improved to 13-2 on the season after she allowed just one run on six hits with a season-high 11 strikeouts and no walks.

"Sarah did a great job today," head coach Kerri Blaylock said. "She settled in and got her mojo back. Location-wise, she probably wasn't feeling real good early on but then all of the sudden she settled in and got some tough outs. We did some different things today and she responded well so I was very happy with her performance today."

The contest got off to an ominous start for the reigning MVC Pitcher of the Week, as Eryn Gould socked the first pitch of the game into right center for a double. Harness, however, never flinched and used a pop up and back-to-back strikeouts to get out of the first unscathed.

After Harness set the Aces down in order in the top of the second, Southern's offense got to work. Elizabeth Warwick led off the bottom half of the frame with a double and Bailey Caylor followed with a one-out infield single. After Evansville recorded the second out of the inning, Aubree DePron beat out an infield hit to load the bases for Maddy Vermejan, who drew a bases loaded walk to stake SIU to a 1-0 lead.

Evansville wasted little time with its rebuttal as it used a single, a double and a well-placed bunt to knot the score at 1-all in the top of the third.

After both Vetter and Harness hung zeros in the fourth, Evansville once again got its lead off hitter on in the fifth with a single. Vermejan snagged a hard-hit liner and fired to first to double up the Aces and end the threat.

In the sixth, Harness worked around a pair of two-out singles to keep the game tied. Elisabeth Huckleberry appeared to hit a towering solo home run in the bottom of the sixth but the umpires ruled that the ball went foul and the game remained tied.

In the seventh, Harness retired the side in order and Vermejan drew a lead off walk to set the table for Jansen, who's 22nd career home run gave the Salukis a 3-1 win.

"I'll be honest, starting 16-0 did not do us any favors," Blaylock said. "We needed to learn how to lose, how to be pressed and what to do when things aren't going our way. I asked for somebody to please be tough and step up. Thats all I kept saying. Evansville was showing their toughness and we needed to match that and Jenny did."

The Salukis have now won seven-straight conference games and will go for the series win over Evansville tomorrow with a doubleheader that is set to begin at 12 p.m.

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