The Illinois State softball team fell from its perch atop the Missouri Valley Conference to the sit in the No. 2 behind Southern Illinois as the Redbirds dropped both games of the doubleheader to the Salukis -- 1-0, 1-0 -- at the Redbird Softball Complex Saturday afternoon.
Despite Redbird pitcher Audra Rast hurling a season-high 14 strikeouts in the first game, Southern Illinois freshman Katie Louis caught a pitch just perfect and sent the winning homerun over the right centerfield fence for the 1-0 lead. Louis homer was her 11th of the season and broke the Southern Illinois softball record for homeruns in a season.
The Redbirds were unable to come back in the bottom of the seventh and lost the game, 1-0.
It was a similar situation for the Redbirds in game two of the doubleheader, but this time, the game went into the ninth inning before being determined by another Southern Illinois homerun. This time it was Saluki Jenny Doehring with the homerun over the right field fence for the game-winning hit and 1-0 win.
Rast gave it her all when she returned in game two to hurl 17 strikeouts, one away from the school record held by Nicole Kurth, against Southern Illinois on April 7, 2001. On the day, Rast pitched 15.1 innings, threw 31 strikeouts, gave up 13 hits, but only allowed the two runs.
Head coach
Melinda Fischer was unavailable for comment, but assistant coach
Tina Kramos commented on the outstanding pitching performances by both teams.
Audra did a great job and both of Southern Illinois pitchers performed well, said Kramos. We need to get people in the position to score and we need to score some runs. Once again, the timely hits were key.
The Redbirds (26-20, 17-5 in the Valley) will face the Salukis (34-8, 17-4 in the Valley) for the conclusion of the series at the Redbird Softball Complex with a single game beginning at noon.
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