APSU Sports Information
Oxford, OH – Austin Peay State University’s softball team got a 10-strikeout, three-hit performance from Morgan Rackel, Friday at Miami Softball Stadium in the opening day of the Miami Invitational, as the Governors defeated Miami 4-1 after being edged by Dayton in the opener, 8-7.
The Govs will continue play at the Miami Invitational Saturday with rematches versus Dayton (12:30pm) and Miami (5:30pm).
Dayton 8, Austin Peay 7
The Govs (13-12) saw the Flyers (9-10) jump out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning but rallied back with three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning, highlighted by a two-run homer by Rackel and an RBI single by Carly Mattson.
The Flyers would score single runs in the second and fourth innings to extent its lead out to 5-1, with Danielle Liermann cutting that lead back to three runs with a home run in the fifth.
The Govs defense would let them down in the top of the seventh, with two errors opening the door to three unearned runs for the Flyers.
Austin Peay wouldn’t go quietly though, with Drew Dudley, Kacy Acree and Liermann all hitting home runs in the bottom of the seventh to cut the Dayton lead to one, 8-7, but the Flyers were able to get the final two outs of the game as the Govs’ rally fell short.
Austin Peay 4, Miami 1
Rackel (9-5) would dominate right from the start versus the RedHawks (10-9), as she only allowed a single in each of the first two innings, then retired 11 in a row, while finishing with 10 strikeouts in the contest.
Austin Peay would break the scoreless deadlock with two runs in the top of the fourth inning, the first coming on a single by Lexi Osowski and the other on a sacrifice fly by Brooke Pfefferle.
Miami would hit a home run in the bottom of the sixth to make it a one-run game, 2-1, but the Govs would add two insurance runs in the top of the seventh, the first coming when Bailey Shorter scored from third on a wild pitch, with Kelsey Gross scoring the other on a single by Rackel.
Inside the Boxscore
Senior Danielle Liermann’s home run in the fifth inning versus Dayton was the 40th of her career, the most in program history.
With her 10 strikeouts versus Miami, senior Morgan Rackel becomes just the fifth pitcher in program history to record at least 300 strikeouts in a career.
Kacy Acree is now just the fifth player in program history to record at least 100 career RBIs and score at least 100 career runs.
With her win, Morgan Rackel ties Holly Ricketts (2000-03) for the fifth-most wins by a pitcher in program history (31).
APSU Head Coach Kassie Stanfill Statements
On Rackel’s performance
“Morgan threw well today. She hasn’t really been feeling like herself recently but has been working very hard on the side to get back into her grove and she sure looked like the old Morgan out there today.”
On Lexi Osowski’s return to the lineup
“It was nice to have Lexi back in the lineup, she squared the ball up well in both games and got a couple of nice base hits in the second game.”
