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Box Score 2 MURRAY, Ky. – Playing in its final road series of the regular season, the SIUE softball team lost a pair of games against Ohio Valley Conference foe Murray State Saturday afternoon at Racer Field.
"I'm very disappointed with how we played today," Head Coach Sandy Montgomery said. "We had chances to get it done and didn't execute. I have to figure out the best combination of players to put on the field and I'm going to do that tomorrow."
The Cougars fell 5-4 in ten innings in game one before the Racers prevailed 7-2 in game two.
SIUE (24-21, 16-5 OVC) had a seven-game OVC winning streak snapped with the doubleheader sweep. It was also the first time since April 6 that the Cougars pitching staff allowed five or more runs in a game.
In game one, both teams scored an early run and took a 1-1 tie into the fifth inning. Murray State (27-21, 13-8 OVC) broke through for three runs in bottom of the fifth, highlighted by Alyssa Becker hitting her second home run of the game.
The Cougars had an immediate response, however, scoring three runs of their own in the next half inning. Kayla Riggs got things going with an RBI single that plated Allison Smiley and Rebecca Gray, before Jill Rackers drove Riggs home with an infield single.
The teams would go scoreless for the next four innings of play until Leslie Bridges drove home the winning run for MSU with an RBI sacrifice fly in the 10th inning.
For the Cougars, Haley Chambers allowed four earned runs on six hits over 9.2 innings and posted nine strikeouts in the loss.
"Haley pitched very well but unfortunately she made two mistakes to Becker," Montgomery said. "It's tough to win when you do that."
In game two, the Racers broke the game open with a four-run third inning before adding two in the fourth and one in the fifth. Bridges led the way offensively for the hosts by going 2-4 with two RBIs and a run scored.
SIUE got two runs in the seventh inning off RBI singles from Chelsea Yankolovich and Alex McDavid. Yankolovich and Smiley combined for five of the Cougars' nine hits in the game.
The Cougars and Racers will wrap up their three-game series with a single game Sunday at 1 p.m.
"We're supposed to be getting sharper but we're still making mental mistakes; that will kill you at this time of the season," Montgomery added. "We have to dig in, focus, and get the job done. We need to have a lot more fight in the dog."
