Six days after splitting a doubleheader in Evansville, the Purple Aces and Southern Illinois softball squads meet in the rubber match on Tuesday at 4 p.m. in Carbondale, Ill. at Charlotte West Stadium.
In the second-to-last home weekend of the season, the Purple Aces dropped two out of three to Indiana State. The Sycamores took both ends of Saturday’s doubleheader but the Aces were able to earn a 4-2 win in game three.
Trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Morgan Florey got the Aces on the board with a sacrifice fly before Morgan Lambert hit the go-ahead 3-run home run to give UE the win.
In three games this week, Morgan Florey threw 21 innings as she picked up two victories and allowed just three runs. She began the week with a complete game, 2-hit shutout over Southern Illinois while striking out 12 batters. She followed that up on Saturday with another gem, going the distance in the opener against Indiana State, giving up just one run on three hits while fanning six batters.
Florey registered her second win of the week on Sunday with another complete game effort. She is the likely starter on Tuesday at SIU. In three career starts versus the Salukis, Florey has tossed 27.2 innings while notching an unbelievable 0.76 ERA. The sophomore has gone the distance in 13 of her last 15 outings while posting a 1.85 ERA (3rd in the MVC). Her 170 strikeouts leads the league by 30.
Ashlee Kawall and Brittany Hay also have some of the top tallies in the Missouri Valley Conference. Kawall has notched 20 steals on the season, which ranks second in the conference. Hay has crossed the plate 34 times this year, the 5th-highest tally in the league.
Limited to a 2-game series due to weather over the weekend, Southern Illinois took two games from Wichita State in a doubleheader on Sunday. SIU picked up a 3-2 win to start things off before clinching the series with a 5-4 victory. Shaye Harre paces the team with a .327 average while Merri Anne Patterson leads the Salukis with seven home runs and 37 RBI.
Brianna Jones has notched 11 victories in the circle while accumulating a 2.33 ERA.
