SPRINGFIELD, IL --- Illinois Springfield (16-15, 3-5) beat Truman State (21-13, 4-4) by a score of 5-3 in the opening game of the day, but fell 5-3 in eight innings to close out the doubleheader.
Ali Haesele (10-4) picked up the win in game one while
Jaycee Craver (4-7) took the tough loss in game two, coming in relief of starter
Rachel Goff.
GAME ONE: ILLINOIS SPRINGFIELD 5, TRUMAN STATE 4
The Prairie Stars plated four runs in the second inning to take an early lead on the Bulldogs.
Morgan Edwards began the inning with a single to left center and her pinch runner,
Alexa McClaughry, later scored on an RBI single from
Erin Stroup.
Amanda Gosbeth came up with the big hit of the inning, a two-out two-run double to right center, scoring
Madi Torry and Stroup.
Lakyn Wagoner ended the inning with an RBI single, scoring Gosbeth.
Haesele, who was nearly perfect all day, made one mistake in the sixth inning as a ball was put up into the wind, and barely carried over the center field wall for a three-run homerun, cutting the Prairie Star lead to 4-3.
UIS came right back though, as Gosbeth and Wagoner teamed up again, as Wagoner drove in Gosbeth with another two-out RBI.
In the seventh, a one-out double followed by an infield single scored a run for Truman State, but Haesele struck out her ninth and tenth batters of the game to finish off the 5-4 victory. The ten strikeouts are the most of Haesele's career at UIS, while she walked just one on the day.
Gosbeth led the way for UIS in game one, going 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBI, scoring twice on two singles from Wagoner.
GAME TWO: TRUMAN STATE 5, ILLINOIS SPRINGFIELD 3 (8 INNINGS)
In their third extra-inning game of the conference season so far, UIS came up on the wrong side, after holding an early 2-0 lead. Wagoner continued her impressive day, leading off the game with her first career homerun, clearing the right field wall and giving UIS an early lead. Stroup later drove in
BriAnna Edgar to give UIS a 2-0 lead, though UIS did leave the bases loaded.
Truman tied the game in the third with two runs, collecting three hits against Goff.
Craver relieved Goff in the fourth and finished the game, throwing five innings and striking out four.
No team scored until the eighth inning, when the Bulldogs put three on the board. UIS came back with a rally in the bottom half, as Gosbeth hit a two-out double to keep things alive and came in, yet again, on a single from Wagoner. With the tying run as the plate, Edgar grounded out to first to end the game.
However, Edgar did have three hits on the game, going 3-for-5 with a run. UIS collected 14 hits in the game, but left 11 runners on base.
Edgar led the way with three hits on the game but Wagoner, Brown, Stroup, and Gosbeth each collected two hits of their own.
UIS will travel to Lindenwood University in St. Charles on Tuesday for a single-game before hosting Bellarmine and #14 Southern Indiana next weekend for another GLVC match-up.
