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April 9, 2006

Box Score

WICHITA, Kan. - A clutch two-run home run in the top of the seventh was not enough for the University of Northern Iowa softball team to avoid a sweep at the hands of Wichita State Sunday, as the Shockers put two runs on the board in the bottom of the seventh to secure a 4-3 win at Wilkins Stadium.

In a battle of high school teammates, both UNI's Monica Wright and Wichita State's Margo Pruis, who pitched for Morrison (Ill.) High School as preps, put together solid efforts in the circle. A pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the seventh allowed Pruis to emerge the victor, however.  Wright allowed two earned runs on eight hits over 6 1/3 innings pitched while recording five strikeouts, but saw her season record fall to 5-14 with the loss.  Pruis earned the complete-game victory by holding the Panthers to three runs on five hits and recording nine strikeouts.

With the Panthers trailing 2-1 going in the seventh, freshman Stefaney Shalla (Kalona, Iowa/Mid-Prairie) drew a walk to put the tying run on first.  Kelly Papesh (Minooka, Ill/Minooka), representing the go-ahead run, then came up with the big hit, launching a two-run homer to left field to give UNI a 3-2 lead.  The Shockers were far from done, however.

Katie McGeeny led off the Shockers' half of the seventh with a single up the middle and Brooke Usher followed with a single of her own to give Wichita State a pair of runners with no one out.  McGeeney then found her way home on a UNI throwing error to knot the score at 3-3.  A deep fly ball off the bat of Ashley Lynn was enough to push Usher, who advanced to third on the error, across for the game-winning run.

The win moved the Shockers to 27-14 on the year and completed a sweep of the three-game Missouri Valley Conference series to move their league record to 9-5.

Britnee Barnett put the Shockers out front early, clubbing a two-run home run in the bottom of the first that also brought home McGeeney, who led off the inning with a double.

Freshman Morgan Paulson (Fort Dodge, Iowa/Fort Dodge) responded by leading off the second with a solo blast to right field - the first of her career - to halve the Shockers' lead to 2-1.  Stephanie Aguero (Muscatine, Iowa/Muscatine) followed with a double to the right field gap, but the Panthers' failed to find a way to bring her across.

After giving up two runs on a pair of hits in the first, Wright put together back-to-back 1-2-3 innings and allowed only an infield hit to speedy Erin Peterson in the fourth frame.  Wichita State threatened in the fifth, but Wright worked out of a bases-loaded jam by getting Julie Darling to hit a deep fly that Nikki Ferden (Eldridge, Iowa/North Scott) was able to corral in foul territory.

Aguero went 2-for-3 at the plate for UNI, while Paulson capped a weekend that saw her go 4-for-9 with her second-inning homer.

The Panthers (9-26-1, 1-11 MVC) travel to Ames, Iowa, on Wednesday for a rematch of last week's 2-1 loss to Iowa State before hosting Drake in a three-game weekend conference series at Panther Park.  Action gets underway at 4 p.m. Wednesday, with first pitch scheduled for noon both Saturday and Sunday in Cedar Falls.

NOTES
- Morgan Paulson's second-inning home run, combined with Kelly Papesh's seventh-inning shot, gave the Panthers 16 home runs for the season, matching the team's 2005 home run total. It took the Panthers 47 games to hit 16 homers last season, while this year's squad accomplished the feat in 36 games.

- When shortstop Rachael Rogers snared a Brooke Usher line drive and fired to first to catch Katie McGeeney off the bag in the bottom of the third, she and Morgan Paulson combined for the Panthers' 18th double play of the season.  That number matches UNI's double play total from 2005 in 11 fewer games.