The University of Southern Indiana softball team ran into a couple of buzz saws in their quest for a Great Lakes Valley Conference title Sunday as the Screaming Eagles fell to No. 2 University of Indianapolis, 8-0, in six innings and to No. 6 University of Missouri-St. Louis, 10-0, in five innings.
USI (35-19), which lost via the eight-run rule for the first two times this season, has to wait until Monday morning to find out its NCAA Division II Tournament fate. The selection show is scheduled for 9 a.m. (CDT) at www.ncaa.com.
After playing Indianapolis (49-3) to a scoreless tie through four innings of their first game of the day, the Eagles fell victim to a five-run fifth inning that featured a pair of USI errors and five unearned tallies.
USI committed two more errors in a three-run sixth inning as the Greyhounds took firm control of the contest.
The Eagles struggled to get anything going offensively as their hitters were set down on strikes eight times. Junior catcher Haley Hodges (Portage, Indiana) had two of USI’s three hits as the GLVC Player of the Year finished the contest 2-of-3 against the GLVC Pitcher of the Year in UIndy senior hurler Morgan Foley.
USI’s offensive struggles continued into its elimination game against Missouri-St. Louis. USI was held to just four hits as the Eagles were shut out for just the fifth time this season and the first time in back-to-back games.
Missouri-St. Louis, meanwhile, wrapped a pair of two-run innings around a one-run second frame as the Tritons built a commanding 5-0 advantage. The Tritons ended any chance of a USI comeback as they scored five times in the top of the fifth inning to build a 10-0 cushion.
The 10 runs marked the most USI has given up in a game this season and the most since surrendering 12 runs in a loss to Truman State University April 11, 2014.
Freshman pitcher Haylee Smith (Florence, Kentucky) was charged with the loss in both games. Smith (11-8) gave up five unearned runs off six hits in 4.1 innings of work against Indianapolis before giving up three runs off four hits in 1.1 innings of work against Missouri-St. Louis.
USI, which finishes third in the GLVC Tournament after a 2-2 effort, began the week ranked fifth in the final NCAA II Midwest Region Rankings.
Indianapolis won the conference title with a 7-1 victory over Missouri-St. Louis in the championship game.
