ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – In its regular season finale, the UIndy softball team traded one-run wins with host Lewis University Saturday afternoon. The Greyhounds finished the GLVC schedule with a 16-12 record, locking in a spot in the upcoming GLVC Tournament.
GAME 1 | UIndy 4, Lewis 3 (9 innings)
With both starting pitchers absolutely dealing, the game remained scoreless until the seventh inning.
Josie Jager managed a leadoff single—the Hounds' first hit of the day—to put pressure on the Flyers' defense. Two errors and a sac fly later, UIndy found itself up 2-0 heading into the bottom of the seventh.
The home team responded, however, with a two-out, two-run double from Nicole Magdziasz to send it to extras. And after a scoreless eighth, freshman
Brooklyn Willis delivered the biggest hit of her young career, lifting a 1-2 pitch over the centerfield fence to again stake the Hounds to a two-run lead.
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This time the lead stuck, as freshman pitcher
Cheyenne Eads capped an impressive outing by stranding the potential tying run at third base. She caught the final Flyer looking at strike three, good for her 15th strikeout of the game and a season high. She moved to 19-10 on the year while tossing her fourth complete game of more than seven innings.
Driving in her 49th and 50th RBIs of the season, Willis' game-winning blast marked the first extra-inning homer for a Greyhound since
Emily O'Connor walked off these same Flyers with an eighth-inning solo shot in last year's Midwest Regional 1 final.
FUN FACTS
UIndy is now 5-1 in extra-inning games this season … Eads' strikeout total was the most by a Hound since 2019 when Hallie Waters K'd 17 in a 10-inning contest versus Missouri-St. Louis … Willis' homer was the first ninth-inning-or-later home run for UIndy since March of 2017 when Natalie Lalich connected for a two-run tater in the bottom of the 10th versus Drury.
GAME 2 | Lewis 6, UIndy 5
Saturday's second game also featured some late-game fireworks from Willis. With the Hounds trailing, 5-3, and down to their last out, Willis tied it up with an opposite-field drive for her second two-run bomb of the day.
Shelby Cook—who also scored on Willis' game-one homer—started the rally with a leadoff walk.
The Flyers had some pop of their own left, however. With one down in the bottom of the seventh, Kristen Graham got a hold of a 0-1 pitch, as her solo shot salvaged a split for the home team.
Jocelyn Calvin got the scoring started with a solo home run in the top of the second. Jager had an RBI double in the fifth, while
Maya Rodriguez added a pair of singles. In the circle,
Jayden Casebolt (12-6) was tagged with the loss in a complete-game effort.
UP NEXT
With much of the league still in action through the weekend, the Greyhounds will have to wait until the end of play tomorrow to learn their GLVC Tournament seeding. The annual league championship will get underway next week, running April 30 – May 3 in East Peoria, Ill. Stay tuned to UIndyAthletics.com for times and matchups.
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