Sunday’s game has been cancelled due to weather
In its second day in Birmingham, the Purple Aces softball team split a pair of games on the diamond. UE fell by a 6-2 final to Houston Baptist before rallying for a 4-3 victory over Samford on Saturday afternoon.
Sunday’s game against Jackson State has been cancelled due to the impending weather.
Katie McLean was the star of game two, going a perfect 3-3 while scoring twice. She had three of the Aces’ seven hits. Izzy Vetter threw the first three frames before Emily Lockhart went four scoreless frames allowing just two hits while striking out four. She earned the victory.
Samford recorded the first two runs of the game on a Madison Couch home run in the second. The Bulldogs added a third run in the third before Eryn Gould hit her team-best fourth home run of the season, a solo shot, to get the Aces on the board in the top half of the fourth.
In the fifth, Evansville roared back with two more runs to tie the score at 3-3. Allison Daggett led off with a single before moving to third on a Katie McLean hit. She would cross the plate on a Bulldog error as McLean stole second. After Eryn Gould reached via a walk, McLean stole home as Gould stole second to pull off a successful double steal that tied the game.
Evansville kept fighting in the seventh as McLean and Mea Adams led off with a pair of singles. Both would advance on a wild pitch before Gould walked to load the bases. Morgan Florey grounded out to bring McLean home for what would be the winning run.
UE opened the day with a 6-2 loss to Houston Baptist. The Huskies scored the first four runs of the game. After scoring twice in the second, they added a single run in the third and fifth frames. Evansville got on the board in the top of the sixth with some 2-out magic.
McLean hit a double to right and came home when Morgan Florey singled to right. HBU countered with two more runs in the sixth before the Aces added a single run in the seventh off of a Lindsay Renneisen solo shot to make it the final of 6-2. The Aces picked up five hits in the game with McLean posting two. Florey was back in the circle for the Aces; she threw all six innings and gave up six earned runs. She struck out nine batters.
Another tournament is on tap for the Aces next weekend at East Tennessee State. UE will take on Tennessee Tech, Rutgers, Siena and ETSU in five games running Saturday through Monday.
