This season has been what one would call inconsistent for the UM-St. Louis softball team, as they have struggled all year to find a rhythm suitable to their game. Over this past week the softball team has started to find that rhythm little by little as they threw out a great effort in splitting two conference doubleheaders.
In the first pair of games the Riverwomen played visitor to conference rival Southern Indiana, and came to win from the get go. In the opener, the Riverwomen won a marathon game that went 16 innings. Southern Indiana got the first run of the game in the third inning before the Riverwomen came back to tie it up in the sixth inning with a run of their own, off of outfielder Kristin Economon's RBI single that scored teammate Shauna Wilson to knot the game at 1-1.
The game then went into extra innings, as neither team could score a run, inning after inning. It wasn't until the 16th inning that the Riverwomen finally broke through as Corie Jones led the inning off with a walk and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. Lisa Neukirch followed up the bunt with an RBI single to score Jones and give her team the 2-1 win. Starting pitcher Jessica Coffey pitched the entire 16 innings, giving up just one run on 11 hits while striking out eight to pick up the unforgettable win.
Heading into the second game the Riverwomen were confident that they could keep the momentum going and grab another, but it was not to be as Southern Indiana bounced back to win the second game by the margin of 5-3. The Riverwomen managed to grab the lead with two runs in the fourth inning off of an RBI single by team member Kim Kulaitis. The Riverwomen got another run in the fifth on an RBI single by Jessica Keim for a 3-1 lead, but then Southern Indiana broke through and scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth to take the 5-3 win out from under the Riverwomen.
Sophomore Emily Wagoner commented on the games. "We played well in both games. It was good to see that we finally played close to our potential and that we showed that we are hard to beat, but we just couldn't get the win in the second game although we still played well," said Wagoner.
After a tough loss in the second game the team headed to play nationally ranked SIU-Edwardsville for their second conference double-header in as many days. In the first game, the Riverwomen came out and took the early lead with a run in the second inning on a lead off double by Lisa Neukirch who later scored on an RBI single by teammate Megan Raney for a 1-0 lead. SIU-Edwardsville would come back to tie the game in the fourth with a single run and took the lead in the fifth with another run. The Cougars then added an insurance run in the sixth inning for the close 3-1 victory.
The second game proved to be a much different story as the Riverwomen came out strong, taking another early lead with a run in the third inning. Pitcher Emily Wagoner doubled and moved to third on a ground out before scoring on a fielding error by the Cougars to give the Riverwomen the 1-0 advantage. The Riverwomen then added a run in the fifth inning with a two-out rally. It was Wagoner who got it going again, by hitting a single through the left side of the infield. She would then move to second on another error by the cougars. Only two batters later senior third baseman Kim Kulaitis hit an RBI single to give the Riverwomen a 2-0 lead.
The Cougars would rally to score a run in the sixth, but the Riverwomen were not to be outdone this time as they held on for the 2-1 victory. In addition to scoring both runs in the game, sophomore Emily Wagoner also picked up the win, pitching 6.0 innings and allowing just one run on five hits.
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