Florey earns two wins for Purple Aces
  Fresh off of a pair of Missouri Valley Conference series wins, the University of Evansville softball team made it three in a row, sweeping Southern Illinois in a doubleheader on Tuesday afternoon.
Morgan Florey picked up the win in both games for the Purple Aces (20-20, 8-9 MVC) and now has 13 victories on the season. Kristin Koepke had the deciding home run in the first game while fellow freshman Tess Hupe scored the game-winner in game two. Southern Illinois (25-16, 8-8 MVC) makes the trip to Evansville next Tuesday for the final game of the series.
“We preach to play the game pitch-by-pitch and you saw that in game one, it came down to a great swing by Kristin and that was the difference. It was a true pitcher’s duel with two of the best freshmen battling it out in the circle,†UE head coach Mat Mundell said. “In game two, we jumped out early and SIU fought back. Courtney laid down the perfect squeeze to score Tess the winning run. I love the fight out of this group!â€
Game one was an all-out pitcher’s duel as Morgan Florey and SIU’s Brianna Jones duked it out. In the end, it was a Kristin Koepke home run that made the difference as the freshman hit one out of the park for the second time in three games. Courtney Land recorded the other hit for the Purple Aces.
Both pitchers went the distance as Florey gave up just one hit while Jones allowed two. Koepke’s homer came in the top of the sixth and Florey handled it from there. She sat the final seven SIU batters down in order to earn her 12th win of her freshman season. Florey also matched her career mark with nine strikeouts.
Following a defensive struggle in the first game, Evansville looked to change that early in the second contest, posting two runs on three hits in the top of the first in. Chandra Parr opened the game up with a leadoff single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Land. After designated player Florey reached on an error, Hayli Scott came to the plate with two outs and delivered an RBI double. Michal Luckett followed that up with an RBI single to give UE a 2-0 lead.
Southern Illinois rebounded with single runs in the bottom of the first and second frames and the score would stay that way until the top of the sixth. A few familiar foes came into the circle once again as Jones and Florey squared off following their duel in game one and Evansville was able to get the job done against Jones once again. Susan Norris led the sixth off with a single and was pinch run for by Tess Hupe.
With two outs, Hupe moved to third after Parr reached on an error. That brought Land to the plate, who laid down a perfect bunt on the squeeze to plate Hupe and score what would be the winning run. The Aces finished game two with seven hits while holding the Salukis to four. Scott had two hits and an RBI in the win.
Evansville remains on the road this weekend, heading to Terre Haute for a 3-game set at Indiana State. Next Tuesday, UE welcomes SIU to Cooper Stadium for the final contest in the 3-game series.
