Aces win 16th game of the season
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EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Four University of Evansville players belted home runs on Saturday when the Purple Aces softball team earned a doubleheader sweep over Valparaiso at Cooper Stadium.
Game one saw the Aces (16-7, 4-1 MVC) finish with a close 2-1 victory before UE rallied from a 4-3 deficit to post the final five runs in an 8-4 win over Valpo (5-14, 1-4 MVC).
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Game 1
Valparaiso stranded the bases loaded in the top of the first and Eryn Gould wasted little time in taking advantage, leading off the bottom of the first with a solo home run to deep center field. Evansville added a second run in the frame on a Jessica Fehr single. Valpo cut the lead in half when Taylor Tonoian homered to left field in the top of the fourth.
The Aces had a chance to add some insurance in the bottom half of the sixth when pinch runner Mackenzie McFeron stole second before reaching third with one out, but Valpo escaped the jam unscathed to keep it a 1-run game. It would not make a difference in the end with Izzy Vetter sitting VU down in order in the seventh co clinch her seventh win of the season. Valpo had three hits while the Aces posted two, both being RBI knocks in the first. UE did reach base with six walks; Gould and Jenna Lis registered two apiece.
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Game 2
In the second contest, Valpo once again had early baserunners but took advantage when they got on the board in the top of the second. Three hits, including an RBI from Lauren Kehlenbrink, saw them take a 1-0 lead. It did not take long for the Aces to respond. A Lis walk was followed by a Jessica Fehr single. That is when Lindsay Renneisen belted her fifth home run of the season to give UE a 3-1 lead.
Valpo continued to put runners on base as the first three batters in the third would reach before scoring their second run on another Kehlenbrink single. Jaime Nurrenbern limited the damage to just one run to keep UE in front at 3-2, but Valparaiso continued to battle and would go back in front in the fifth when Alexis Johnson tripled to right-center.
Evansville answered in the bottom of the frame when a 2-run home run by Katie McLean, her first of the season, put Evansville back on top. Also scoring on the play was Eryn Gould, who walked earlier in the inning. Following a Haley Woolf base hit, Marah Wood added the Aces third homer of the game to push the lead to 7-4 before Gould added an RBI single in the sixth. That was all the insurance the Aces would need as Erin Kleffman picked up her third win of the year in an 8-4 final.
Picking up two hits apiece for UE were Haley Woolf, Fehr and Wood while Renneisen paced the team with three RBI. In total, the Aces registered nine hits while Valpo checked in with 11. Jaina Westphal had a team-high three hits.
Tomorrow morning, the teams meet up for the third and final game of the season at 11 a.m. inside Cooper Stadium.
