TERRE HAUTE, IN ? On a rainy afternoon at Price Field, the Sycamore softball team beat the Shockers of Wichita State, the fourth-ranked team in the Missouri Valley Conference in not one, but both games of a doubleheader thanks to homeruns by Meredith Simpson, Katie Armour, and Kelsey Anderson.
A lead-off homerun in the bottom of the first inning by Simpson was all the Sycamores needed to take game one of the afternoon. Simpson belted Wichita State's Ashly Bright's first pitch of the day over the centerfield fence for her sixth homerun of the season to give the home team the 1-0 victory. Simpson is now tied for most homeruns in a single season in Indiana State softball history.
The shockers had a couple golden opportunities to score with the best one coming in their last at-bat. Meagan McCurdy came into the game in the bottom of the seventh inning to pitch for Armour who gave up just two hits in six innings of work. McCurdy struck out the first batter she faced but gave up a single and walked another Shocker batter to put runners on first and second. After striking out the next batter followed by one more walk to load the bases, McCurdy threw her final pitch of game one to Kara L'Huillier who grounded out to McCurdy. The sophomore pitcher picked up her first save of the season and Armour, who started the game for the Sycamores, improves her record to 2-8.
Bright, who pitched all seven innings for the visiting Shockers, struck out 13 of the 21 Sycamore batters she faced while giving up just one hit - Simpson's leadoff homerun in the first inning.
Game two would also come down to a game-winning homerun but in much more dramatic fashion. After three scoreless innings, the Shockers took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning off of a leadoff homerun by Cynthia Verhulst.
The Sycamores remained undaunted as Armour hit a two-run homerun to centerfield to put her team in the lead 2-1.
The Shockers came back to regain the lead in the seventh inning when L'Huillier hit a 2-RBI homerun to left center that, for a minute, took the life out of the Sycamore fans at Price Field.
With one final opportunity to defeat one of the top teams in the MVC in two straight games, senior Kelsey Anderson came up to the plate to face Bright who pitched all fourteen innings for the Shockers and had 26 strikeouts on the day. Anderson ignited the crowd by hitting a walk-off two-run bomb over the right field wall to give the Sycamores the 4-3 victory!
McCurdy threw a complete game improving her record to 7-9 while recording eight strikeouts in game two. The Sycamores improve to 13-20-1 (4-9 MVC) and jump Bradley and Northern Iowa in the conference standings to go to eighth place.
The series with Wichita State concludes tomorrow with game three scheduled for a noon-start. The game will be broadcasted live on WISU Radio along with GoSycamores.Com.
