EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Backed against the wall, the Sycamore Softball team came through with a crucial doubleheader sweep of Evansville, not yielding a single run to the Purple Aces in 1-0 and 9-0 victories on Saturday.
Despite a near three hour rain delay that left the field waterlogged, Indiana State (20-24, 5-14 MVC) received two stellar pitching outings from
Kenzie Ihle (14-12) and
Kylie Stober (3-11) as the Sycamore defense was flawless and the ISU offense was timely and productive when it needed to be.
Ihle was nearly unhittable in Game One, leading the Sycamores to a 1-0 victory with a complete game shutout game with a season-high 12 strikeouts – the most by any Sycamore pitcher since Lindsey Beisser also struck out 12 vs. Sacred Heart on March 7, 2012.
The Sycamore offense immediately jumped on Evansville in Game Two, taking a 4-0 lead in the first and a 5-0 lead in the second, giving Stober a nice cushion for the run-rule victory in which she also struck out a season-high five batters.
"Our approach offensively was much better today," said ISU interim head coach
Tori Magner. "We had a plan going in and we stuck to it the entire day. Our pitchers did a great job today attacking the zone and getting ahead early. Kenzie and Kylie both had a great day and it allowed our defense to play relaxed."
Giving a little extra motivation for the Sycamore today was the absence of outfielder
Bailey Martin, who underwent season-ending surgery yesterday.
"Any win is big, but today was a little extra after having a tough midweek matchup at Loyola," Magner said. "The girls are playing for Bailey, and you can see the difference in their perspective of the game. Today was a fun day of softball."
Indiana State will look for the series sweep against Evansville tomorrow at noon ET at Cooper Stadium.
Game One:
Indiana State (19-24, 4-14 MVC), 1
Evansville (19-25, 10-8 MVC), 0
WP: Kenzie Ihle (14-12)
LP: Morgan Florey (13-7)
Evansville was able to bring the tying run as close as third base with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, but if they weren't going to score the previous six-and-two-thirds off Ihle they weren't going to in the most crucial point of the game either.
After allowing a leadoff single in the seventh to UE's Hayli Scott (just the fourth hit Ihle would give up all day), Ihle found herself down in a 2-0 count with Scott on third and two outs following a sac bunt and groundout. Ihle quickly regained what brought her this far, and battled back three straight strikes for her 12th punchout of the game and the win for the Sycamores – snapping a five-game losing streak for ISU.
"It felt really good to come out and get the win today, especially with the weather at the beginning," Ihle said. "We knew we just had to come out in the beginning and score first."
Ihle is being modest, though, as her dominant performance was the driving force for the Sycamores. Her season-high 12 strikeouts were key (she had four innings with at least two and two innings where she struck out the side), but the other major factor was she only walked two batters. In fact, Hayli Scott was the first Evansville runner to make it to third all game on Ihle, and that was with two outs in the seventh.
"Getting ahead of batters was huge today," Ihle said. "When you get ahead of batters you can work the count and throw where you want to throw. Also, when you have good defense behind you they'll make the plays behind you when they put the ball in play."
The Sycamore defense played a flawless game with zero errors (ISU has now gone 13.1 innings without an error), and ISU's lone run off UE's Morgan Florey came on a rally with two outs in the fifth. Senior
Kassie Brown drew a two-out walk, which led immediately to a
Leslie Sims bunt single and an RBI single by
Rylee Holland through the left side – which would be all Ihle needed.
Game Two (5 innings):
Indiana State (20-24, 5-14 MVC), 9
Evansville (19-26, 10-9 MVC), 0
WP:
Kylie Stober (3-11)
LP: Ashleigh Downing (3-8)
Conversely, the Sycamores wasted no time at the plate in the second game, giving starter
Kylie Stober plenty of cushion in a 9-0 run-rule win in five innings.
Indiana State jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning alone after
Leslie Sims (2-4, 2 SB) led off the game with an infield single to spark an RBI single by
Erika Crissman (2-2, RBI, SB) and a two-run double by
Shaye Barton – the first of a pair of two-baggers for the sophomore.
Senior
Mary Turitto (1-3, 2B, SF, 3 RBI) added one in the next frame to make it a 5-0 game on a sacrifice fly. The Sycamore offense would put the game away in the top of the fifth with four more runs off a two-run single by
Rylee Holland (1-3, SAC, 2 RBI, SB) and a two-run double by
Mary Turitto on a laser over the left fielder's head.
Stober, meanwhile, had her best statistical outing of the season with a season-high of her own in strikeouts with five and allowing just two Evansville hits in five complete. Stober also struck out the side, giving ISU three such innings across both games on Saturday. Stober also had a single at the plate, going 1-for-4 and scoring one of ISU's four runs in the first inning.
Also knocking a hit in Game Two was
Kassie Brown, who went 1-2 with a sac bunt as well.
For the latest information on the Sycamore Softball team, make sure to check out
GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including
Facebook and
Twitter.
