Miami University
Southern Illinois-Edwardsville
Softball Wins Red and Black Tournament with Sunday Sweep
2/27/2011 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Feb. 27, 2011
LOUISVILLE - The softball team won the championship of the Louisville Red and Black Tournament with a sweep of its two games on Sunday. In the morning, Miami earned a measure of revenge against the University of Sothern Illinois-Edwardsville, beating the Cougars, 3-0. The RedHawks then took down the host Louisville Cardinals in the afternoon, winning 6-5 in eight innings. Miami is now 7-3 overall on the season.
In the afternoon game against Louisville, two pitchers for the Cardinals pitched a perfect game through 5.1 innings against the RedHawks. Meanwhile, while Miami starter Paige Myers pitched well, Louisville was able to score one run in the bottom of the first and two runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 3-0 lead.
With one out in the top of the sixth, Kristy Arbour finally got the RedHawks' first hit with a single to the pitcher. Daniela Torres followed with a walk and Jordan McElroy moved both into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. With one swing of the bat, Meghan Mawn made it a 3-2 game, singling to center field to score both Torres and McElroy. Kayla Ledbetter was up next, and she hit her first career home run over the left center field fence to give Miami its first lead of the day at 4-3.
Junior pitcher Jessica Simpson came in relief in the bottom of the sixth inning. She kept Louisville off the board in the frame, but ended up getting in a bases loaded jam with only one out in the bottom of the seventh. An RBI groundout by the Cardinals brought a run home to tie the game at four, but Simpson forced the next batter to ground into a fielder's choice to send the game to extra innings.
The eighth inning was played with the international tiebreaker rule that allows each team to start with a runner on second base. For Miami, Arbour was placed in that position. Torres led off the inning getting hit by the pitch and one batter later, a wild pitch moved Arbour and Torres each up a base. Mawn's shot to the outfield was then mishandled by the right fielder, which allowed both Arbour and Torres to score.
In the bottom of the eighth, a single by the leadoff batter brought home the Cardinals' international tiebreaker run and made it 6-5. Simpson did not let that faze her as she proceeded to get the next three batters in order, striking out the last one to secure the victory and the tournament championship.
Mawn finished the 1-for-4 with three RBI and one run scored. Ledbetter was 1-for-3 with two RBI and one run scored. Arbour was 1-for-3 with two runs scored. Simpson earned the win in relief, giving up one earned run on four hits in three innings pitched. She improved her record to 6-2 on the season.
In the opener, Simpson allowed only three hits against SIUE, while pitching her third shutout of the year. She struck out 10 to improve her record to 5-2. Only one Cougar runner reached third base the entire game.
Miami got on the board in the top of the second when Kirstie Fehrenbach doubled to left field to score Jenna McGivney. Simpson helped out her own cause in the top of the sixth when she hit her first career home run over the left field wall to make it 3-0 and complete the RedHawks' scoring.
Simpson finished the day batting 2-for-3 with two RBI and one run scored. Fehrenbach was 1-for-2 with one RBI and one walk. Ledbetter was 2-for-4.
Miami will be in action next weekend when it participates in the Buzz Classic, Mar. 4-6 in Woodstock, Ga. The RedHawks will begin play with two games on Friday, taking on Penn State at 1 p.m. and Georgia State at 4 p.m.
