Evansville defeats Eastern Michigan and Alabama State
  The University of Evansville softball team opened up the 2016 campaign with a pair of victories on Friday as they defeated Eastern Michigan (6-5) and Alabama State (7-5) to start the year at 2-0 in the opening contests of the Trojan Invite.
“I thought our pitchers came out and did a great job. They kept us in both games and were able to keep hitters off balance,†UE head coach Mat Mundell said. “I could not have asked for to better games to open with. In the first game, we got to go to extra innings and work on playing with pressure. In the second game, we got ourselves into a hole and had to battle back to get the win. Both were games we could build off of.â€
Game one saw a pair of freshmen play large roles in the win. Tess Hupe opened her career playing left field as she went 2-5 with a pair of runs scored. Fellow frosh Morgan Florey picked up the win, pitching the final four innings as the Aces were able to come from behind for the win.
Amanda Blankenship made the start, going four innings as she gave up three runs. Florey took over, fanning eight Eagle batter in her four innings of work.
UE got on the board with one run in the third and one in the fourth innings. Chandra Parr doubled in the first run of the year, plating Hupe. One inning later, Ashlee Kawall gave the Aces a 2-1 lead, scoring on an error.
Eastern Michigan scored twice in the bottom of the fourth to take a 3-1 lead before the Aces knotted it up in the fifth frame. The contest remained scoreless until the 8th inning when Evansville took control, scoring three times. Olivia Cheatham broke the 3-3 tie with a double in the top of the 8th before Michal Luckett hit the first home run of the year for UE to give the squad a 6-3 advantage. EMU was able to score twice in the bottom of the inning before Florey secured the win by forcing a pair of pop outs.
Daniell Freeman was the star of the second game, going 3-for-4 with four RBI and three runs scored. Luckett registered three hits while Hupe finished the game 2-4 with a pair of runs as UE earned a 7-5 win over Alabama State.
Evansville fell into an 0-4 hole as the Hornets scored four times in the bottom of the second. In the top of the fourth, UE got on the board as a Morgan Lambert doubled in Freeman, who notched a double of her own earlier in the frame.
After sitting the Hornets down in the bottom of the fourth, Evansville’s offense took the lead for good in the fifth. Hupe got it rolling with an RBI double to left, plating Kawall, who reach on an error to lead off the inning. Next up was Freeman, who tripled to right to add two more runs.  Freeman crossed the plate on an error, marking the fourth run of the inning, to give Evansville a 5-4 lead.
Two insurance runs were added by UE in the seventh as they were able to hang on for the 7-5 victory. Blankenship made the start, going three innings before Emily Lockhart made her debut with four innings of work. She gave up one run on three hits.
With a pair of wins under their belts, the Aces will be back at work on Saturday with two more contests. UE faces Alabama State in a 9:30 a.m. game before taking on host Troy at 2:30 p.m. To follow via live stats or video, click the tournament page above.
