Southern Illinois University
29-9, 11-6
Illinois State University
23-6, 9-2
Salukis take series finale from Redbirds, 3-2
04/18/2021 | 2:51:00 | Softball
The Illinois State Redbirds sent the winning run to the plate with no outs in the seventh but Southern Illinois starting pitcher Sarah Harness pitched her way out of trouble to help the Salukis hold on for a 3-2 win in the series finale on Sunday inside Marian Kneer Stadium.
Harness was masterful Sunday and worked around traffic on the base paths whenever Illinois State threatened-Â the Redbirds left 10 on-base and stranded a runner in six of the seven innings, which included leaving the bases loaded in both the fourth and seventh innings.Â
The reigning MVC Pitcher of the Week was unflappable even when the outcome hung in the balance. The Redbirds got their first two runners on base in the seventh and cut Southern's deficit to one with no outs after an errant throw following a bunt single. But Harness kept her composure to retire the next two batters, then battled through a 13-pitch at-bat that ended in a hit by pitch to load the bases before inducing a game-ending pop up on her next pitch.
Harness improved to 15-3 in the circle after she went the distance and allowed one earned run on eight hits. She struck out nine and walked two to become the 10th pitcher nationally to reach 15 wins.
"We switched some things up this weekend," head coach Kerri Blaylock said. "I had Coach Jen Sewell call pitches for Sarah today and I thought she did a phenomenal job and Sarah executed her pitches flawlessly against a great offensive lineup. It was a combination of those two things plus we played great defense and our hitters came through with a couple of runs for us today in key moments."
At the plate, Maddy Vermejan and Jenny Jansen led the way for the Salukis, as they combined for five of SIU's six hits on Sunday. Vermejan reached base in all four of her plate appearances and was 3-for-3 on the day, while Jansen was 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs to extend her on-base streak to 20-games, which is the longest streak by a Saluki since 2013. Vermejan, meanwhile, hit .700 (7-for-10) for the series, which included back-to-back three hit games.
"Maddy had an unbelievable weekend and was a tough out all weekend," Blaylock said. "Maddy and Jenny are two veterans that I thought Jen had a good plan for leading up to this series. We worked hard this past week on what we were going to face at the plate and what we needed to look for and Jenny and Maddy executed the game plan like two veterans should. I thought they both had great weekends."
Southern again got off to a good start Sunday. Vermejan led off with a double but was called out on a questionable play at third on a grounder by Caylor. Caylor was able to advance on a wild pitch and later raced around to score on a single by Jansen.
After the Redbirds used the long ball to knot the score at 1-all in the bottom of the second, Vermejan and Jansen teamed up to put Southern back on top in the third. Vermejan beat out an infield single, stole second and came around to score on Jansen's second single of the afternoon.
Harness ran into a little trouble in the bottom of the fourth when the Redbirds used a walk and two singles to load the bases but the sophomore hurler was able to get the strikeout she needed to get out of the jam.
After Harness stranded another Redbird runner in the fifth, Southern turned a leadoff walk into a two-run cushion with a two-out, RBI-single by Sidney Sikes.
The Salukis are back in action on Wednesday, April 21 when they travel to Springfield, Mo. to take on the Missouri State Bears. First pitch of the seven inning contest is set for 12 p.m.
Notes
Jansen's first inning double was her second in her past three games and moved her into a tie with Jayna Spivey for the seventh-most career doubles (38) in program history … Vermejan scored three runs in the series and is now three shy of breaking Mallory Duran-Sellers career record of 162 … Vermejan stole three bases in the series to become the eighth player in program history to steal 20-plus bags in a single-season and is now four stolen bases shy of Cheryl Venorsky's 1992 school record of 25 … She needs 11 more stolen bases to break Jami Koss' career record of 63, set in 1996 … Jansen had three RBIs over the weekend and now has 126 career RBIs, which ranks eighth in program history and 18th all-time in MVC history … Vermejan's three hits Sunday tied a season-high and she had back-to-back three hit games for the second time in her career and first time since 2018 … Vermejan is seven games played shy of breaking Haley Viefhaus' career record of 223 games played … Vermejan's .593 on-base percentage this season would shatter Southern's season record by more than 60 points (.527, Shaye Harre, 2017) … Vermejan's 44 runs scored this season are tied for the seventh-most in a single-season in program history … Kerri Blaylock needs two more wins to pass Itchy Jones for the most wins by a Saluki coach of any sport in school history.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Harness, Sarah (15-3)
L: Leonard, Mack (8-2)
Batting:
2B: Vermejan, Maddy 1
RBI: Jansen, Jenny 2 ; Sikes, Sidney 1
SH: Boelens, Maris 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Vermejan, Maddy 1 ; Caylor, Bailey 1 ; Wernig, Meredith 1
SB: Vermejan, Maddy 2 ; Boelens, Maris 1
Batting:
2B: Chval, Kaili 1
HR: Standish, Jayden 1
RBI: Chval, Kaili 1 ; Standish, Jayden 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Standish, Jayden 1 ; Gardner, Reili 1
HBP: Olson, Emme 1 ; Coursey, Andrea 1
