April 7, 2007
Box Score
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - An eight-run sixth inning by Missouri State was too much for the University of Northern Iowa softball team to overcome Saturday, as the Bears rallied to defeat the Panthers 10-8 in the finale of the teams' weekend series.
Despite pushing eight runs across and pounding out 11 hits, the Panthers (14-19, 2-6 MVC) could not withstand the Bears' eight-run onslaught, which erased a four-run deficit in the sixth frame and earned Missouri State (17-21, 6-7) a split of what became a two-game league series.
The second game of Saturday's scheduled doubleheader was canceled because of unseasonably cold temperatures in the Springfield area. The game will not be made up.
The Panthers got off on the right foot in the first inning, with Ashley Lepley (Albia, Iowa/Albia) driving in Megan Machovec (DeWitt, Iowa/Central) with an RBI double after Machovec led off the game with a single. Lepley then scored on a wild pitch to give UNI a 2-0 lead.
The advantage didn't last long, as the Bears answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first, but a four-run fifth broke things open again for the Panthers.
Morgan Paulson (Fort Dodge, Iowa/Fort Dodge) led off the frame with a single and was replaced by pinch-runner Brittany Ruzicka (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Jefferson), who promptly stole second. Whitney Link (Ankeny, Iowa/Des Moines East) then sacrificed Ruzicka to third, allowing her to score on a sacrifice fly by Mandy Kumamoto (Torrance, Calif./West) and give UNI a 3-2 lead.
Kumamoto reached second, however, when her fly ball was dropped, which set her up to score on an RBI single by Machovec. Lepley's second double of the game then plated Machovec to push the Panthers' lead to 5-2, before Stephanie Aguero (Muscatine, Iowa/Muscatine) followed with a single that drove in Lepley and gave UNI a four-run cushion.
Lepley was strong in the circle after allowing the Bears' pair of first-inning runs, but the Missouri State lineup tagged her for four more tallies in the sixth before she was lifted for reliever Jen Larsen (Moline, Ill./Moline) after 5 1/3 innings. Three walks and three hits off Larsen allowed the Bears to push another four runs across in the inning and take a 10-6 lead.
The Panthers came up with a rally in the top of the final frame, as Larsen led off with a single and scored one batter later on an RBI double by Aguero. A base hit by Rachel Gerking (Spirit Lake, Iowa/Spirit Lake) brought Aguero home and cut Missouri State's lead to two runs, but that was as close as the Panthers would get.
Larsen took the loss for the Panthers and saw her season record dip to 8-9 after allowing four runs in 1/3 of an inning.
In all, five Panthers drove in at least one run, with Aguero and Lepley each tallying a pair of RBI as part of 2-for-4 efforts at the plate. Machovec went 2-for-2 from the lead-off spot, scoring two runs and driving in another.
UNI returns to action on Monday, hosting North Dakota State in its home opener at Panther Park. The doubleheader with the Bison was rescheduled from March 22 because of inclement weather and will be the Panthers' fourth attempt at staging a home opener. The previous three scheduled home series have each been affected by the weather.
