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April 6, 2007

Box Score

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Home runs by Kelly Papesh and Ashley Lepley and an outstanding pitching effort by Jen Larsen propelled the University of Northern softball team to a 6-1 win over Missouri State in the opener of a weekend series against the Bears.

Lepley (Albia, Iowa/Albia) went 2-for-3 and drove in three runs, including a two-run home run in the fourth inning to lead the Panthers, while Papesh (Minooka, Ill./Minooka) led off the seventh with a solo homer to help the Panthers improve to 14-18 overall and 2-5 in Missouri Valley Conference play.

The Panthers pounded out 10 hits and took advantage of four Missouri State errors to back up a superb effort by Larsen (Moline, Ill./Moline), who allowed just a single earned run by scattering seven hits by the Bears in a complete-game effort. 

The freshman right-hander improved her season record to 8-8 by taking the win, pitching 6 2/3 scoreless innings before Elysha Swider put up the Bears' only tally with a two-out solo home run in the bottom of the seventh.

Larsen aided her cause with a 2-for-3 effort at the plate and two stolen bases.  Along with the runs driven in by Papesh and Lepley, Rachel Gerking (Spirit Lake, Iowa/Spirit Lake) and Stephanie Aguero (Muscatine, Iowa/Muscatine) also recorded RBI for the Panthers.   

Gerking went 3-for-3 at the plate with a double and a stolen base, as the Panthers combined for a perfect 5-for-5 effort on the basepaths.  Freshman Megan Machovec (DeWitt, Iowa/Central) added a triple and a run scored for the Panthers.

A pair of sacrifice flies by Aguero and Gerking put the Panthers on the board in top of the third inning, and UNI doubled its lead in the fourth on Lepley's fifth home run of the season. 

An RBI double by Lepley in the sixth pushed Machovec across and gave UNI a 5-0 lead, before Papesh put the Panthers up 6-0 in the seventh with her fourth homer of the year.

The Panthers and Bears (16-21, 5-7 MVC) will face off twice Saturday after Friday's scheduled doubleheader was cut to a single game because of unseasonably cold weather. The opener is set for noon, with game two scheduled to follow at approximately 2 p.m.

NOTES

With their win over Missouri State, the Panthers matched their Missouri Valley Conference victory total from last season, when UNI went 2-21 in league play.  UNI is 2-5 in MVC games this season.