EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - Southeast Missouri tallied six runs in the first two innings Sunday and held off SIUE softball 7-4 at Cougar Field.

SIUE, now 9-17 overall and 1-5 in the Ohio Valley Conference, sent the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the seventh after Paige Rocha scored on a base hit by Lauryn Yslava.

SEMO, 9-17 overall and 4-2 in the OVC, got the final two outs from Maddie Carney, who earned her second save of the season.

"That was a hard-fought game," said SIUE Head Coach Ben Sorden. "I thought we should have started better defensively and in the circle, but we battled."

The Redhawks came out aggressive in the first two innings, scoring three runs in both the first and second innings.

SIUE cut the lead in half in the bottom of the third inning on an RBI single by Jenna Herron and a two-RBI single by Yslava.

Rylie Pindel was strong for the Cougars out of the bullpen. She struck out two, allowed four hits and one run over six innings. Emma Henderson took the loss.

SIUE outhit the Redhawks 10-9, which included two hits each from Herron, Yslava and Anna Henderson.

"I liked our fight," said Sorden. "We had three kids who were 2 for 4."

Paytience Holman earned the win with four innings of work for SEMO and improved to 5-6.

SIUE's next five games are on the road beginning with a 5 p.m. contest Tuesday at Evansville. The Cougars are at UT Martin in OVC play next weekend followed by a single game March 27th at Illinois.