UE to play at 1 and 3 p.m. CT
The annual travel partner doubleheader is up next for the University of Evansville softball team as the Purple Aces head to Terre Haute for a Wednesday doubleheader. Game one starts at 1 p.m. CT while game two begins shortly after 3 p.m.
Illinois State earned a series sweep over the Aces last weekend, taking the three games by a total of five runs. Toni Galas registered two hits in four at-bats in Normal while Eryn Gould and Mae Adams went 3-11 to hit .273 in the 3-game set. The pitching staff did well once again, notching a 2.33 ERA. Late rallies by the Redbirds gave them wins in game one and three; on Friday, ISU trailed the opening tilt, 1-0, in the 6th, but plated two runs to take a 2-1 win. ISU also the final contest by a 2-0 margin in the bottom of the 5th, but scored twice in the 5th and 6th frames to take a 4-2 win; in the second game, UE trailed 4-0 but rallied with two runs in the seventh in a 4-2 loss.
With four Valley series remaining, Morgan Florey has already made it a memorable season as she set the program single-season mark in strikeouts at Illinois State. Florey sits at 220 and passed the previous record of 216, which was set by Katie Markle in 2005. In the MSU series, Florey posted the 600th strikeout of her career; Florey is just the second in program history to do so, joining Katie Markle on the exclusive list. Florey is on the cusp of joining the top 20 in MVC history as Drake’s Jessica Hicks ranks 19th with 653 in her career from 2003-06.
Freshman Toni Galas began her career 0-7 from the plate, but over the last week, she began to find her groove. Galas registered three hits in nine trips to the plate; she also picked up her second stolen base on the season.
Evansville is mired in a 7-game losing streak, but that is not indicative of how competitive the team has been. The Aces have lost those 7 games by a total of 11 runs. Three of those contests went to extra innings while six were decided by two runs or less.
Indiana State comes into Wednesday’s doubleheader with a mark of 20-19 and 7-7 in the Valley. They took two out of three from Southern Illinois over the weekend after splitting a doubleheader last week at Purdue. Leslie Sims paces the Sycamores with a .414 batting average while Bella Peterson stands at .362. Their staff is led by Arielle Blankenship, who has a 2.93 ERA.
