Austin Peay State University Lady Govs Softball drops doubleheader to SIU Edwardsville Cougars

APSU Sports: Austin Peay Softball

Clarksville, TN – Austin Peay State University’s softball team gave the hottest team in the Ohio Valley Conference too many extra chances on Saturday, at Cheryl Holt Field, as Southern Illinois Edwardsville swept the Lady Govs by scores of 8-4 and 8-2.

But it wasn’t just the pitching that struggled.

Five of the six runs scored by Austin Peay against SIUE (30-8, 13-2 OVC) came off three home runs, while the other nine hits collected scored a total of one run for the Lady Govs.

In Game 1, the Cougars got out to a 1-0 lead with a run in the top of the second inning, with Kayla Riggs scoring on an infield out by Rebecca Gray.

Austin Peay would answer back in the third inning, with Abby Guest leading off the inning with an infield single and score all the way around from first on a double to left field by Marissa Lake.

Jessica Ryan would then draw a base on balls, followed by Lauren de Castro’s fourth home run of the season – to straight away center field – driving in three and giving Austin Peay a 4-1 lead.

Lake would have two hits for APSU, while de Castro led the Lady Govs with three hits.

But that lead would be short lived.

SIUE took advantage of a walk, a single and hit batter to load the bases for Alex McDavid – their leading run producer — with two outs.

McDavid would wait back on a 0-1 change-up from de Castro and clear the fence in left for a gram slam and giving the Cougars a 5-4 lead.

That would be all that SIUE starting pitcher Haley Chambers (16-2) would need, as she limited the Lady Govs to a pair of singles – by Lake and de Castro – over her final four innings of work.

The Cougars would tack on three more runs, two coming in the fifth inning on a double by Gray and a final run in the seventh on a Gray single.

Gray and Brittany Toney had two hits each for SIUE.

In Game 2, the Cougars scored single runs in both the first and second innings to get out to a 2-0 lead, with the first run coming by way of Taylor Tooley’s steal of home – on the back side of a double steal, while the second inning run came in off a two-out error by Lady Gov third baseman Shelby Norton.

SIUE would make it 3-0 in the top of the fourth on back-to-back doubles by Gray and Chelsea Yankolovich.

Gray, McDavid and Toney had two hits each in the nightcap.

Austin Peay would get on the board in the fifth inning on Norton’s fourth home run of the season to cut the deficit to 3-1.

But the Cougars would blow the game open in the sixth inning, scoring five times on four hits, but also aided by two errors and two walks.

Austin Peay would close out the game’s scoring on Laurel Burroughs solo home run in the bottom of the sixth – her fourth on the year.

The two teams conclude their conference series April 14th, noon, with a single game.

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Box Score – Game 1

Score by Innings                  R  H  E
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SIU Edwardsville.... 010 420 1 -  8  8  0
Austin Peay......... 004 000 0 -  4  7  0
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Box Score – Game 2

Score by Innings                  R  H  E
-----------------------------------------
SIU Edwardsville.... 110 105 0 -  8  9  0
Austin Peay......... 000 011 0 -  2  5  3
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