Aces softball ready for second trip to Terre Haute

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – One week after dropping a 3-2 extra-inning game at Indiana State, the University of Evansville softball team looks to even the season series with a 3 p.m. CT game on Tuesday in Terre Haute.

 

Last Tuesday, the Purple Aces and Sycamores went into extra innings with the game knotted at 1-1.  In the top of the ninth, Jess Willsey hit a solo home run to give her squad the lead, but the bottom of the frame saw the Sycamores hit a 2-run shot to pick up the 3-2 win.

 

Friday’s series against Southern Illinois was a struggle for the Purple Aces as the Salukis took a 17-1 victory in five innings.  In those five frames, SIU accumulated 17 runs on 14 hits.  Following the performance, the Aces made sure it would not happen again.  Over the ensuing 14 innings of the series, Evansville held the Salukis to just three runs on 16 hits.  After averaging 3.4 runs per inning on Friday, SIU was held to just 0.21 runs/frame in the final two games.  UE responded with two clutch performances to take the series and deal SIU just their sixth and seventh losses of 2023.

 

Highlighted by one of the most impressive performances of her career, Jess Willsey batted .444 over the last week while leading the Aces to a series victory over Southern Illinois.  The freshman registered four hits in nine at-bats while picking up five RBI, two runs, two walks, two doubles and a home run.  In the opener for the week at Indiana State, Willsey went 1-3 with a walk and home run.  Her homer in the top of the ninth inning temporarily gave UE the lead.  

 

Saturday’s game against the Salukis was arguably her top collegiate performance.  She was a perfect 3-for-3 with four RBI and two doubles in a 4-3 win over SIU.  Willsey drove in all four runs in the win.  On Sunday, she reached on a walk and scored what would be the game-winning run to clinch the series.

 

The Missouri Valley Conference leader in saves and ERA put together another solid week as she made appearances in three of the Purple Aces’ four contests.  Brenton tossed a total of eight innings and accumulated eight strike outs and two saves.  Brenton opened the week with four innings of relief at Indiana State. 

 

She allowed two earned runs.  In the two victories over Southern Illinois, Brenton recorded a save in each one. Saturday saw her throw two frames while striking out two batters.  She gave up just one hit.  Sunday’s series-clinching victory saw Brenton throw two more scoreless innings while allowing one hit and fanning two batters.

 

Following their win last Tuesday, Indiana State dropped two out of three games in their home series versus Northern Iowa.