APSU Sports Information
Bowling Green, KY – On Saturday afternoon at Buchanon Park, Carly Mattson‘s RBI groundout in the top of the seventh inning capped a late-inning rally by the Governors who came from two-runs down to defeat Wright State, 3-2, after falling in their opening game 7-2 to Illinois State at the Hilltopper Spring Fling Tournament.
Danielle Liermann started the rally in the top of seventh for Austin Peay (4-2) by drawing a one-out walk and was then lifted for Drew Dudley, who came in to pinch run.
Allie Blackwood would follow with a ground ball to the Raiders (2-5) shortstop, who’s low throw to first got by the first baseman allowing Dudley to move all the way around into scoring position at third base, bring up Mattson.
Mattson would make the most of her chance, hitting a slow roller to the Wright State second baseman, who’s throw home to get Dudley wasn’t in time and giving the Govs their first lead of the game, 3-2.
Govs relief pitcher Kelsey Gross (2-1) would make that one-run lead stand up, as she sat down the Raiders in order in the bottom of the inning – including striking out the final two hitters to wrap the game up.
Overall, Gross pitched three no-hit, shutout innings of relief in picking up the victory — allowing no base runners, while striking out four.
Wright State scored its two runs in the bottom of the first inning and made that lead hold up until the top of the fifth inning, when the Govs knotted the score, 2-2, with the first run coming in on a throwing error and the tying run coming in on a double by Blackwood – the only hit recorded by the Govs against the Raiders pitching staff.
In the opener versus Illinois State (5-5), the Govs fell behind the Redbirds 1-0 after one inning, where the score remained, until Illinois State padded their lead with four runs in the top of the fourth inning to go up 5-0.
The Govs would try to mount a rally, scoring two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning – on back-to-back sacrifice flies by Kacy Acree and Liermann – to cut the margin to three runs, 5-2, but that would be as close as the Govs would get, with the Redbirds tacking on two unearned runs in the top of the seventh inning for the 7-2 final.
The Govs will continue play in the Hilltopper Spring Fling on Saturday, when the face Indiana State at 5:30pm at the WKU Softball Field.
