Shocker SB at Evansville

[flyingMoose]

The Shockers continue their conference schedule with a series at Evansville this weekend.

Evansville is 14-16 overall and 2-6 in Valley play where they were a preseason pick for ninth, just three votes below the Shocks. The Purple Aces split two games with Indiana State with a third game being cancelled, were swept by Bradley and took one of three from Northern Iowa. We swept Indiana State and took two of three from Bradley. Their non-conference schedule, which appears to be just slightly weaker than ours, includes a win over Northern Illinois, two losses to UT-Martin (we played them the second day of our season) and two losses to ranked Missouri.

The Purple Aces' offense is led by Megan Gurski (BA of .374, OPS of .998 and six homers) and Kayla Fortner (.276, .965 and seven homers), older sister of our Brittany. The numbers fall off pretty dramatically after these two.

Seven!! different pitchers have made appearances for Evansville. Gurski, the Pitcher of the Week for the Valley this past week, has half of the starts and has an ERA of 2.91, a WHIP of 1.46 and averages a strikeout per inning. Emily Morris, Briana Combs and Annie Moore have 80% of the rest of the innings.

The Shockers continue to be lead at the plate by PaigeL (.404, 1.164 and seven homers) and Cacy (.390, 1.228 and seven homers). Liz, Melanie and Kelli all have an OPS greater than .800.

Sloan now has an ERA of 3.78 with a WHIP of 1.39 while Katie's numbers are 4.77 and 2.01.

The Shockers' writeup for the series is here and the Purple Aces' writeup is here.

[flyingMoose]

Oh, these games start at noon both days. Here are the LiveStats links for the first game and second game of the series.

[1972Shocker]

Sloan getting the start in Game 1. Her last start was 8 games ago on March 2nd vs Indiana State.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks trying to get Game 1 to extra innings. Shocks trailed 2-3 into the 7th. Loaded the bases with 2 outs. Brittany Fortner walked to force in the tying run.
Macklin Hitz pinch hit for Layne Greenlee but struck out to end the threat. But the Shocks did get the game tied at 3-all.

Katie Malone brought in to pitch the bottom of the 7th in relief of Sloan after the lead-off hitter (out of the 8-hole) reached 2nd with no outs on an error by Sloan and a passed ball. With 1 out the runner on 2nd stole 3rd and scored the winning run on an error (I am assuming a throwing error by the Melanie although I can't tell for sure).

Tough loss for the Shocks. They need to bounce back in Game 2.

Shockers...3R, 4H, 1E, 9LOB
Aces.........4R, 6H, 1E, 4LOB

[flyingMoose]

Game 1

Shockers 3-4 Evansville

As noted, Sloan had the start in this one for the Shocks, while Gurski started for Evansville.

The Shockers started the scoring in the second when PaigeL was hit by a pitch, sacrificed to second and driven home by a Melanie single. They scored again in the fourth when PaigeL walked, stole second and scored on a single by Brittany. The Purple Aces countered with a homer in the bottom of the inning.

Evansville then took the lead with two runs in the fifth: a double, infield single and stolen base put runners at third and second. With two outs, one run scored on another infield single and the second run scored as the front end of a double steal.

The Shockers tied the score in the top of the seventh thanks to some wildness by Gurski. After a Cacy single and force out, a hit batter and two walks scored a run - all of the wildness with two outs.

After Sloan made an error to put the leadoff batter on for Evansville in the bottom of the seventh, Katie came on in relief. After a passed ball and walk put runners at first and second, the Purple Aces executed another double steal, and the winning run scored on a throwing error on the play.

@1972Shocker: has the executive summary on this one. :)

[flyingMoose]

(I am assuming a throwing error by the Melanie although I can't tell for sure).

Yes, the stats list an error in the team totals but no error for any individual, but I would make the same assumption as you. Plus the loss is given to Katie when the loss belongs to Sloan - she made the error that put the lead off batter on. In fact, for Sloan they list four runs, three earned, and no runs given up for Katie, all of which is correct. This stuff happens when you have people doing the stats whose sport was rodeo. :(

[1972Shocker]

In Game 2 the Shocks and Aces were tied at 3-all after 4 innings. However, the Shocks exploded for 7 runs in the top of the 5th to take what would seem to be a commanding 10-3 lead with 3 at-bats remaining for Evansville (although the Shocks now have a chance to end this after 6 if they can score in the 6 and hold Evansville scoreless in the 5th and 6th).

[1972Shocker]

Shocker freshman Macklin Hitz gets her 2nd home run of the game in the top of the 7th out of the DH spot. She is starting to swing the bat with authority in recent games. She is 3-3 with the 2 homers with 5 RBI and 3 runs scored. Now that's the kind of production you like to see our of your DH, especially when they are named Hitz.

Shocks lead 12-4 with Evansville coming up in the bottom of the 7th.

Final Line Score:

Shocks...12R, 15H, 0E, 6LOB
Aces........4R, 8H, 1E, 4 LOB

Katie went the distance for the win as the Shocks made this one a no doubter and give themselves a chance to win the series tomorrow.

[flyingMoose]

Game 2

Shockers 12-4 Evansville

Katie has the start in this one for the Shocks. Evansville is starting a pitcher with a total of 9.1 innings on the year who has an ERA of 7.50. With Gurski being their ace and three "tier two"pitchers, this is one of their "tier three" pitchers.

The Shocks scored first with a two-spot in the second. After a single by Brittany and a fielder's choice, Macklin, the DP for this game, smacked a two-run homer. The Purple Aces evened the score in the bottom half of the inning with a two-run homer of their own. They then took the lead in the third on a solo homer by Kayla Fortner, Brittany's sister. Evansville leads 3-2 after three complete.

The Shockers tied the score in the fourth when Brittany's infield single, a bunt single by Melanie and Macklin's sac bunt set up a sac fly by Ali.

The Shocks then exploded for seven runs in the fifth. After a leadoff homer by Cacy and a strike out, Evansville changed to one of their "tier two" pitchers. Liz was hit by a pitch, PaigeL walked, Brittany doubled home a run, Melanie had a squeeze bunt single for a run and advanced to second on the play, Macklin singled home two runs and advanced on the throw and Evansville went to another "tier two." Ali singled, advancing Macklin to third, and stole second base with both she and Macklin advancing (Macklin scoring) on a throwing error. Ali then scored on a passed ball to close out the Shocker scoring in the inning. Evansville scratched one back on two singles and a fielder's choice. Shocks lead 10-4 after five.

Macklin led off the seventh with her second home run. Layne had a pinch-hit double, advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on Molly's pinch-hit infield single for the second Shocker run of the inning. Katie closed out the game one-two-three.

Katie gave up eight hits to go with her four earned runs and struck out eight. Brittany had four hits including a double and Macklin had two homers among her three hits and five RBI. She may have locked down the DP position for awhile.

We will doubtless see Gurski again tomorrow. Hopefully, we can treat her the way we did L-C of Bradley when we saw her the second time (well, third if you count the two batters in game two of that series).

[flyingMoose]

LiveStats for the third game of the series.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks...8R, 9H, 0E, 8LOB
Aces......3R, 7H, 1E, 4LOB

Shocks snap back from the series opening loss to win their 4th consecutive Valley series. Nice job by the offense and a very solid relief pitching job by Katie who pitched a scoreless final 4 innings allowing only 2 hits and 1 walk while striking out 6.

The Shocks, who were picked to finish 8th in the Valley, have done a good job going 9-3 to open conference play but they have yet to face a team expected to finish in the top half of the league. They have played teams expected to finish 6th, 7th, 9th and 10th in MVC play.

The Shocks have 5 series remaining against the 5 teams expected to comprise the top half of the league. The need to go 5-10 in those games to finish above 0.500 in league play which would be a nice step forward for the Shocks. Anything over and above that would be icing on the cake.

After a doubleheader at Oklahoma on Tuesday the Shocks host Valley favorite Northern Iowa at Wilkins Stadium next weekend. A challenging week ahead for sure.

[flyingMoose]

Britttany Fortner for the series: 8 for 10, two doubles, three RBI. She has to be a serious contender for Player of the Week, but going 0 for 6 against Tulsa and KU won't help. The series will give her some bragging rights at the family dinner table though.