SIUE completes sweep of Southeast Missouri State softball team

With a three-run lead in the first inning of Sunday's series finale against Southern Illinois Edwardsville, it appeared the Southeast Missouri State University softball team was on its way to matching its Ohio Valley Conference win total from a season ago.

However, the Cougars' bats were too much to handle for the Redhawks, who surrendered the next five runs and never regained the lead in an 8-4 loss at the Southeast Softball Complex.

Southeast (5-17, 2-7 OVC) has lost nine of its last 10 games, and is in 11th place in the 12-team OVC.

SIUE (27-6, 9-1 OVC), the defending OVC tournament champions, won its 10th straight game with the sweep of Southeast, and is in second place in the OVC, one game behind Jacksonville State.

"I was feeling good at that point with the lead, but I knew it was going to be one of those kind of days," Southeast coach Mark Redburn said. "With the weather the way it was, and obviously a very good hitting team in SIUE, we told our kids right away, 'This is going to be one of those days. Keep playing, keep playing hard and take them when you can get them.' We did for a while there. We felt like we hit some balls hard, we just couldn't get it to quite go our way."

After going 0 for 6 in Saturday's doubleheader, Southeast junior Savannah Carpenter changed her approach at the plate and was looking for a particular pitch from SIUE starter Haley Chambers.

With runners at first and second and one out in the first, Carpenter swung at the first fastball she saw and belted it over the wall in left-center field to give the Redhawks an early 3-0 lead.

"To be honest, I struggled pretty bad yesterday, so I knew what she was going to come back and throw me," Carpenter said. "We hit twice today before the game, so I just prepared for the exact pitch I knew she was going to throw me. So I was ready when she did."

Southeast starting pitcher Madeline Krumrey worked out of trouble in the first, retiring two straight batters after giving up two consecutive one-out singles. And after Carpenter's home run, the freshman said she was pitching with certainty.

"It was definitely a confidence builder, especially when it's in the first inning and you're pitching with a lead," Krumrey said. "You feel like your team's on a roll, so I felt confident pitching with a lead. But I obviously gave it up in the second inning."

That confidence didn't last long against the Cougars. Senior Alex McDavid rifled a solo home run to center field on the first pitch she saw, cutting the Redhawks' lead to 3-1.

Krumrey retired the next two batters, but after hitting Haley Adrian with a pitch, she gave up another home run to Jordan LaFave, which tied the game. Chambers then doubled and scored on Rebecca Gray's bunt when the plate was left unattended, giving SIUE a 4-3 lead, which it did not relinquish.

"We're hitting the ball pretty well right now as you can tell. Having 28 hits yesterday and 13 today is big for us," SIUE coach Sandy Montgomery said. "I thought the only mistake we made was on Carpenter. She's a good hitter, so you can't make mistakes on good hitters. She made us pay for it, but I like the way we're hitting right now."

Redburn said Krumrey made mistakes locating her pitches and wasn't as effective in her second straight day of pitching.

"They're all tough outs," Redburn said about the Cougars. "And that's the thing. We've got Maddie [Krumrey], who threw 100-plus pitches for us yesterday, and bouncing back today she just wasn't as good on Day 2. And even for them and Chambers, I thought her stuff was a little bit down, too. But that's typical. Especially in this game, you're really trying to pound the knees the shins and the ankles, and Maddie's pitches were up in the zone. When you leave balls up, you're going to invite trouble."

Krumrey pitched seven innings for the second straight day, giving up 13 hits and eight earned runs.

"I pitched the seven innings against them yesterday, so for some of them that was like their 10th time seeing me," Krumrey said. "Each day is a new day, but I feel like that gave them some confidence because they scored quite a bit off of me yesterday, too."

SIUE added another run in the third on two singles and a Southeast error, which allowed Rachel Keller to score.

The Redhawks cut the lead to 5-4 on Chelsea Smith's RBI single in the third, which scored Taylor McDannold from second. But Southeast was held to just one hit and two base runners for the remainder of the game.

Chambers hit a solo home run to extend the Cougars' lead to 6-4 in the fourth. McDavid capped SIUE's scoring with her second home run of the day, a two-run shot in the seventh, which bounced off the lower left corner of the scoreboard in right field.

"She's been a great player for us," Montgomery said about McDavid. "She's a senior that we've had for four years, and she actually just got her 200th hit today. I think she's ninth on the all-time list for us. But yeah, she's swinging the bat really well right now and provides a spark for us."

After two straight weeks of losing, Redburn and the Redhawks will keep searching for their third conference win as they travel to Tennessee State to take on the Tigers in a doubleheader at noon Friday.

"We know that the last couple of weekends we've had to fight and battle," Redburn said. "And we knew that these two teams, going all the way back to Monday, were picked 1-2 in the conference. But we approach every game the same way, and we're just trying to keep our kids up, letting them know and understand that when you keep fighting and battling like we are, you'll get some of those balls to drop in. You'll get some of those calls to go your way. We've still got a lot of conference to play here, and hopefully now we can get some wins under our belt."

SIUE 041 100 2 -- 8 13 0

Southeast 301 000 0 -- 4 6 1

WP -- Haley Chambers. LP -- Madeline Krumrey. 2B -- Chambers (1), Savannah Carpenter (1). 3B -- Eccles (1). HR -- Chambers (1), McDavid (2), LaFave (1), Carpenter (1). Multiple hits -- SIUE: Chambers 2-3, Rebecca Gray 3-4, McDavid 3-4, LaFave 2-4; Southeast: Carpenter 3-3.