May 3, 2006

Box Score

CHARLESTON, Ill. - (Wednesday, May 3, 2006) The last two weeks have been a struggle for the Redhawks softball team losing six-straight games during that span. Their last wins came in a doubleheader sweep of Eastern Illinois on April 18. The Redhawks looked to snap their current streak against that same team. The Panthers had other ideas as they kept the Redhawks frustrations going with a 7-1 win at Williams Field in Charleston, Illinois. The loss is the Redhawks seventh-straight loss as they head into a season-ending series at home against second-place Jacksonville State.

The Redhawks (27-19, 14-10 OVC) offense continued to struggle as they could only manage one run on four hits. After averaging over five runs per game their first 39 games they have averaged a mere 0.71 runs per game during their current seven-game skid.

The Panthers (31-24-1, 13-11 OVC) scored seven unanswered runs in the final four innings off of Redhawks ace Elaine Fisher (St. Peters, MO/Francis Howell North) to secure the win.

The Redhawks scored the first run of the game in the top of the second Lindsay Pickering (St. Charles, MO/St. Charles West HS) tripled to lead-off the inning. Stephanie Huffman (Valmayer, IL/Forest Park CC) then followed with a single to left to plate Pickering. Huffman then was thrown out attempting to steal and Panthers ace Kathleen Jacoby struck out the final two batters to get out of the inning.

In their earlier meeting on April 18 against Jacoby the Redhawks tagged her for seven runs in three innings of work. This time around Jacoby was locked in as she only allowed one hit after the second inning and did not let a Redhawk runner past second base. She finished with the complete game and struckout six improving her record to 19-11.

Fisher started the game in typical fashion as she shutdown the Panthers the first two innings. In the third she ran into some trouble as she allowed two runs in the third to make it 2-1 in favor of the Panthers.

In the sixth inning the Panthers blew the game open with a five-run inning highlighted by Sandyn Short's two-out two-run double.

Fisher (12-13) went the distance for her team-high 22nd complete game of the season. She allowed seven runs on 11 hits. It was Fisher's worst outing of the season as she allowed a season-high in hits and runs.

Pickering collected half the Redhawks hits as she went 2-3 for her 14th multi-hit game of the season. Her triple was her second of the season which leads the team.

Megan McDonald (Cape Girardeau, MO/Cape Central) went 1-3 to extend her hitting streak to three games.

Huffman added the last Redhawks hit with her RBI single in the second. It was her 25th RBI of the season.

The Panthers had four players finish with two hits led by Katy Steele who went 2-2 with two RBIs.

The Redhawks committed an uncharacteristic three errors in the game while the Panthers only committed one.

The win by the Panthers clinched an Ohio Valley Conference Tournament berth while the Redhawks fall into a tie for the third seed.

The Redhawks look to snap their losing streak and gain some momentum heading into the OVC Tournament as they host the Gamecocks in a crucial three-game series starting with a doubleheader on Saturday May 6 at 1:00 p.m. and concludes on Sunday as the Redhawks will honor their four seniors in their final game at the Southeast Softball Complex. All three games will be web-streamed on gosoutheast.com with Dan Rettke providing play-by-play.