NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State softball team split its home and Missouri Valley Conference opener against Northern Iowa Saturday at Marian Kneer Stadium. The Redbirds fell to UNI 6-4 in game one, but bounced back to take game two, 5-3.
In game one the Redbirds got off to a great start, courtesy of Stephanie Gallant. After a leadoff double from Annie Heineman and a walk by Jordan de los Reyes, Gallant launched her third home run of the season over the right-centerfield fence to give ISU an early 3-0 lead.
Northern Iowa answered back with one run in the top of the second off of Redbird starter, Regan Romshek, but Romshek cruised through the middle part of the game. Her offense gave her another run of support in the fourth and ISU carried a 4-1 lead into the sixth.
The Panthers found their stroke in the sixth, using the long ball to their advantage. After a pair of singles put two on with one out, Panther pitcher Chelsea Ross sent a three-run, game-tying homer over the fence. Two batters later, Macey Wolfe launched a solo shot that gave UNI the lead.
UNI added one more in the seventh and ISU was unable to mount a comeback. The loss was handed to Romshek who dropped to 7-9 on the season. Heineman, Gallant and Romshek all tallied two hits, but ISU left seven on base and struck out eight times.
Game two was a bit of revenge, however, as the Redbirds reversed the script of the first game. UNI jumped out to a 2-0 lead on Sarah Finck in the first inning and the Redbird offense struggled to figure out Ross.
Finck recovered after the first inning and at one point retired 10-straight batters. In the fifth, the Redbird offense finally awoke.
Payton Billups hit her third home run of the season to cut the Panther lead in half. Then, with two outs, ISU continued its rally. Kara Repp singled and that was followed by a Lindsey Greene two-run blast that bounced off of the top of the fence in left-centerfield. Kelsey Turczyn then doubled to keep the inning going and Romshek drilled a two-run homer to push ISU's lead to 5-2.
UNI was able to get one run back in the sixth, but Finck held off the Panthers and ISU took game two 5-3. Finck went seven innings, giving up four hits and no earned runs while striking out three. She advanced to 2-1 on the season with the win.
ISU is now 10-16 on the season with a 1-1 MVC record. The two teams will meet tomorrow in the season finale at Marian Kneer Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for noon and a live audio broadcast will be available on GoRedbirds.com while a live video broadcast will be available on Redbird HD.tv.
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