JSU breaks OVC softball tournament record in rout of Southeast Missouri State

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. -- The Southeast Missouri State softball team's worst loss of the season couldn't have come at much of a worse time.

The seventh-seeded Redhawks were blasted for a record-setting number of runs as the No. 2 Jacksonville State Gamecocks handed them a 21-0 first-round loss in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament on Wednesday afternoon.

The Gamecocks' 21 runs -- on 25 hits -- broke the previous tournament record for runs in a game of 18. The game, which was held at Cougar Field on the campus of regular-season champion SIU Edwardsville in Edwardsville, Illinois, lasted just 4 *½ innings due to a mercy rule.

Southeast freshman starting pitcher Madeline Krumrey didn't make it out of the first inning of the Redhawks' first postseason appearance since 2011.

After giving up a pair of base hits and hitting all-conference first baseman Sara Borders with a pitch to load the bases, JSU recorded its first out of the first inning with an RBI sacrifice fly off the bat of shortstop Cadi Oliver for the first run of the game.

Left fielder Stephanie Lewis then delivered a two-run double. Third baseman Taylor Sloan sent a double off the glove of Redhawks first baseman Lindsey Patterson to make it 4-0 and center fielder Emily Woodruff singled to right to push the lead to five and reload the bases with one out.

Krumrey's (13-11) final pitch of the game was sent over the fence in right center by leadoff batter Ella Denes for a grand slam that capped a 9-0 first inning for the Gamecocks. Sophomore Aubrey Denno relieved her and coaxed a pair of fly outs to end the lengthy opening inning.

"It was pretty hard," sophomore right fielder Nicole Deering said. "We haven't had a loss like that all season and that was our first time experiencing that, but I thought that we did good. We never hung our heads and even in our at-bats we kept fighting and never gave up."

Southeast recorded just five hits of JSU pitcher Taylor West. The Redhawks loaded the bases with one out in the top of the second after shortstop Taylor McDannold walked and Deering and second baseman Meaghan Touchette singled, but third baseman Savannah Carpenter grounded into a 5-2 fielder's choice that got the lead runner out at home and first-team all-conference center fielder Kayla Fortner struck out to end the threat.

"Coming into this game I didn't feel like we were an underdog," Carpenter said. "Their bats are on fire for sure, but their pitchers were definitely hittable. We didn't show what we could do."

Carpenter, catcher Riley Hayes and Touchette each singled in the game while Deering went 2 for 2.

"Just the fact that we were so behind makes you feel like you have some pressure on you and you're not relaxed at the plate. I was definitely guilty of that," Carpenter said. "But really she was just kind of a junk pitcher, so that's always tough too. She didn't throw a ton of strikes, she was a little wild so then you're kind of on edge like, 'Is she going to throw a ball or strike?' and you just want to hit strikes. Being [against] a junk ball pitcher I think is definitely harder for me because you know that they're just not piping it in there all the time."

Pinch hitter Jamie McGuire made it 12-0 in the bottom of the second with a three-run home run to left center off Denno, who gave up three more hits before sophomore Keaira Schilling was brought in to face No. 3 hitter Borders. The second pitch Borders saw she smashed to left for the Gamecocks' second grand slam of the game, which brought their lead to 16-0 after two complete.

"We were just up in the zone a little bit and that's always going to be tough, but then you've got a great hitting team like Jacksonville State, you've got the wind blowing out, you've got an umpire back there with a zone that's really tight," Southeast coach Mark Redburn said. " It was just kind of one of those things, one of those days where all the factors were just tough for us."

JSU added three more runs on four hits in the third inning..

Lewis bunted for a hit to lead off the fourth inning for the Gamecocks, which led to Redburn making a trip to the circle to talk to his infielders. Schilling then threw a pitch behind designated player Whitney Gillespie, which elicited a reaction from JSU coach Jana McGinnis, who was coaching third base and believed it to be intentional. She and Redburn exchanged words from across the diamond, which led to the umpires talking to each of them separately but resulted in no disciplinary actions.

Gillespie then doubled to the fence in left center to make it 20-0 and Denes supplied the final RBI base hit later in the frame.

"There's just a certain way you play the game, number one, and then secondly we're not saying that you don't keep pushing your teams hard and playing hard and all this and that, but there's also just things that you shouldn't probably be doing," Redburn said. "The biggest thing that I wanted our kids to know was that we're going to still battle and we're going to be a tough team and we're not going to roll over and things like that."

The Gamecocks improve to 37-15 and advance to the winner's side of the bracket and will face No. 3 Murray State at 12:30 p.m. Thursday.

Southeast (19-26) will face No. 6 Eastern Illinois, who was defeated 8-4 by the Racers earlier Wednesday, in an elimination game at 10 a.m. Thursday.

"Honestly it's already over with. That was a tough game but, I mean, hell, what are you going to do?" Carpenter said with a laugh. "We played EIU just a few weeks ago and it was a good time. We hit eight home runs against them so we feel good going in there. This isn't going to bring us down much."