Evansville softball defeats defending C-USA champs

Aces split opening day of Jaguar Challenge

Week two for the University of Evansville softball team got off to an excellent with the Purple Aces earning a win over defending Conference USA champion Louisiana Tech on its way to a split in the opening day of the Jaguar Challenge.

“It was awesome to finally be playing outside.  We have only had two practices on the dirt this spring, so today was more about getting our feet under us,” UE head softball coach Mat Mundell said.  “It was a really windy day, so it presented some challenges for all of the teams.  I thought we did a great job of competing in the circle in both games.  This team continues to get better; we created some great scoring chances but left too many baserunners stranded today.”

Emily Lockhart earned her third victory of the season, tossing a complete game in a 5-4 win over Louisiana Tech top begin the day.  She allowed four runs, three earned, on nine hits.  The Lady Techsters struck first with two runs in the top of the first before the Aces cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the frame.  Jessica Fehr reached on a 1-out double and would come home on an error.

Katie McLean got the second inning started with a double to left and scored on a Lindsay Renneisen base knock to tie the score up at 2-2.  The big inning for UE came in the fourth when the duo of McLean and Renneisen struck again, each hitting a single to lead off the inning.  Kat Mueller advanced the pair on a sacrifice to put them in scoring position.  Renneisen would score the go-ahead run on a single by Eryn Gould before Halie Fain came home on a La. Tech error.  Gould would wrap up the scoring as she crossed the plate on a Jessica Fehr single.

Louisiana Tech inched back with a single run in both the fifth and sixth innings, but Lockhart would not let them get any closer, finishing off the win.  UE had nine hits with Fehr, McLean and Renneisen posting two apiece.

Austin Peay scored first in the second contest of the day for the Aces.  A single run crossed the plate in the bottom half of the second before UE tied it up in the third.  Alyssa Barela reached on a 1-out single before Haley Woolf (HBP) and McLean (walk) would load the bases.  Hannah Hood picked up the RBI when she was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score Halie Fain, who pinch ran for Barela.

The Governors struck again in the bottom of the third, plating three runs to go up 4-1.  Evansville made an effort to come back, scoring a single run in the fifth on a Jenna Lis RBI single, but APSU hung on for the 4-2 victory.  They posted 11 hits while the Aces finished the game with six.  Izzy Vetter tossed three innings and allowed the four runs with three being earned.  Erin Kleffman went three scoreless inning and allowed three hits.

Tomorrow, the Aces face Louisiana Tech at 12:15 p.m. before the first of two meetings against host South Alabama at 4:45 p.m.