UE to play APSU at 3 p.m. DH on Wednesday 

In its final scheduled home non-conference game of the season, the University of Evansville softball team is set to play Austin Peay in a 3 p.m. doubleheader at Cooper Stadium.

UE is coming off of a weekend MVC series at Bradley where they picked up a win in the first game, taking down the Braves by a final of 11-2.  Morgan Florey struck out seven batters in the complete game effort as she also notched three hits.  Kristin Koepke hit the first home run of her career while Courtney Land, Michal Luckett and Hayli Scott each finished with three hits apiece.

For the second time this season, Florey was named the MVC Newcomer of the Week.  Florey recorded the first home run of her career in a win over UT Martin and also picked up the win as she pitched 3 2/3 innings.  In one of the best all-around performance you will ever see, Florey went 3-4 with 2 runs, 2 RBI and 2 doubles in the series opener at Bradley.  Rounding out that performance was her complete game performance as she gave up two runs in six innings while striking out seven.

Despite just six at-bats in the last four games, UE infielder Morgan Lambert took full advantage of every trip to the plate.  Lambert recorded hits in five of her six at-bats, finishing the week hitting .833.  She also drew a walk.  She knocked in three runs for the Aces, helping the squad to a 2-2 mark in its last four games.

Infielder Susan Norris hit .364 over the last week and had a stellar effort as UE played a conference series at Bradley.  Her bat came alive in the final two games of the weekend as she went 4-7 with seven RBI and three runs scored in the final two games at Bradley.  In the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, she knocked in four runs in a 3-4 performance while hitting a home run.  She homered again on Sunday, going 1-3 with a game-tying home run that made it a 4-4 game in the 6th inning.

Austin Peay stands at 5-22 overall and are 1-9 in Ohio Valley Conference play.  Last time out, they fell to UT Martin by a 1-0 final in a defensive battle.  Danielle Liermann and Kacy Acree are the top hitters for the Governors.  Both stand with batting averages of .368.  Liermann is the leading source of power for APSU, leading the way with 22 RBI and three home runs.

Aces well-represented on the squad

 ST.LOUIS – Nine members of the University of Evansville women’s swimming and diving team were named to the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete Team on Tuesday.

Representing the Purple Aces were: Abby Smith (3.95), Kasey Rein (3.93), Amy Smith (3.74). Mackenzie Harris (3.72), Jessica Hildebrand (3.68), Courtney Coverdale (3.63), Maja Magnusson (3.60), Michaela Kent (3.58) and Kristen Myers (3.24).

“It is an honor for these ladies to be named to the 2016 MVC Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete Team,” Purple Aces head coach Rickey Perkins said.  “They did an outstanding job of balancing their academics and athletics. I am very proud of each of them.”

Scholar-Athlete honors require athletes to have completed at least one year and maintain either a 3.2 grade-point average and obtain all-conference honors, achieve a 3.5 grade-point average and finish top-16 in an individual event at the conference championships, or maintain a 3.8 grade-point average and participate in the MVC championship.

The Missouri Valley Conference had an outstanding number of student-athletes on the scholar-athlete team this season for swimming and diving, topping out at 73. In the 2015-16 season, 32 of these scholar-athletes had an impressive GPA at or above a 3.8 and 8 of those had a 4.0 GPA.

The University of Southern Indiana baseball team committed three costly errors in beginning its 10-game road trip with an 8-1 non-conference loss at the University of Missouri-St. Louis Tuesday afternoon in St. Louis, Missouri. USI saw its record rise to 16-11 overall, while UMSL ends the day with an 18-7 overall.

After a pair of scoreless innings to start the contest, the Screaming Eagles committed a pair of throwing errors on back-to-back plays in the bottom of the third as the Tritons took a 2-0 lead. UMSL would seal the victory with four tallies in the fourth and pair of insurance runs in the eighth for the 8-1 final.

USI posted its only tally of the contest in the top of the fifth when senior shortstop Kyle Niemeier (Evansville, Indiana) singled in sophomore leftfielder Buddy Johnson (Shelbyville, Kentucky). Niemeier was the only Eagle to post multiple hits in the contest.

On the mound, senior right-hander Alex Holder (Princeton, Indiana) took the loss in his third start of the year. Holder (2-3) allowed six runs, four earned, on seven hits and two walks, while striking out a season-high five in six innings of work.

Senior right-hander Ben Blaize (Henderson, Kentucky) struck out the side in the seventh, while senior right-hander T.J. Decker (Brazil, Indiana) allowed the final two UMSL runs in the eighth to close out the game for USI.

The Eagles continue the 10-game road trip this weekend when they travel to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to play a four-game series against the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. The Rangers are 4-19 and are still looking for their first GLVC win of 2016 with a league mark of 0-8.

USI leads the all-time series with UW-Parkside, 39-26, after sweeping four-game series last year at the USI Baseball Field.