PEORIA, Ill. --- After a disheartening 10-6 loss to open the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament, the Bellarmine University softball team came back to defeat the Drury Panthers 7-4 on Friday afternoon to stay alive in the double-elimination tournament.
Bellarmine(32-26) will now take on the loser of Northern Kentucky and Indianapolis in an elimination game tomorrow afternoon at the Eastside Centre in Peoria, Ill.
Round 1: Illinois-Springfield 10, Bellarmine 6
The second seeded Prairie Stars scored 10 runs in the final two innings, including a walk-off grand slam by Brooke Carroll, to escape with the first round victory. The Knights committed four errors in the final two innings with only one of the 10 runs being earned.
Bellarmine began the game in cruise control, with the first four Knights that stepped to the plate in the first inning reaching base safely.
Megan Murdoch drove in the game's first run on a double to right center to bring
Lauren Summe around from second. On the next play,
Madi Ratliff's infield single brought home
Cynthia Brown from third.
Later in the inning, Bellarmine got aggressive as Ratliff stole home as part of a double steal with Kaitlyn Morely taking second. Freshman
Scarlett Powers helped the Knights build the lead to 6-0 in the third as the catcher from Brandenburg, Ky. sent a homer over the right center fence for her eighth home run of the year.
Illinois-Springfield began making their move in the bottom of the sixth, scoring three runs on three hits and an error to draw within 6-3. In the seventh, the Prairie Stars tagged on three more runs to draw even at six with two outs and the bases empty. After singles by Mandy Smith and Sarah Gray, Bellarmine elected to intentionally walk Rachel Wood, who was 1-3 from the plate with two RBIs, to load the bases.
The gamble did not pay off as Carroll took a 1-0 pitch and sent it over the right field fence for the game winner. Freshman
Alicia Miller took the loss, giving up nine hits and striking out two over 6.2 inning.
Box Score
Round 2: Bellarmine 7, Drury 4
Seemingly knocked out early on, Bellarmine battled back twice from two-run deficits to stay alive in the tournament, eliminating Drury. Ratliff and Murdoch both went 3-4 from the plate, with Murdoch hitting her 12th home run of the season in the seventh to tie the school record that she set last season. It also gives the junior shortstop 29 for her career, one shy of Jordan Bashem's career record.
In the bottom of the first, the Knights were still feeling the ill effects from the game one defeat, as the Panthers scored two runs off three hits and a BU error. Bellarmine bounced back in the top of the second though, plating two runs on Powers' second home run of the day.
Drury countered in the bottom half of the inning with two solo homers of their own to take a 4-2 lead after two innings. The Knights took the punch from Drury and answered with a two-run single by Ratliff in the top of third to draw even at four.
Summe put Bellarmine ahead for good in the fourth as she hit a solo home run to right field, making the score 5-4. Murdoch's record-tying home run led off the seventh inning with
Hannah Daunhauer driving in the final run on a one-out double.
Drury attempted to mount another comeback in their final at-bat, placing runners on second and third with just one out. This time around Miller had the poise of a veteran, getting the next two batters to look at strike three to end the game.
Box Score
