Softball Completes Sweep of SNU

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 DURANT, Okla. – After posting 19 runs over the first two games of the series, Southeastern needed a walk-off home run by Jessica Simmons and the combined pitching performance of Jacee Bennett and Mindy McElroy to pick up wins of 2-1 and 4-2 and complete the sweep of Southern Nazarene on Saturday afternoon at the Southeastern Softball Field.
 
The wins lift the Savage Storm to 18-7 overall on the season and 13-3 in Great American Conference play, moving Southeastern into the lead in the league standings.
 
The wins also stretch the SE winning streak to nine games heading into a Monday non-conference double-header against Minnesota-Duluth set to start at 1 p.m. at the SE Softball Field.
 
The day belonged to Simmons who reached base safely in seven of her eight plate appearances and posted a 4-for-5 mark over both games with three walks.  She hit her first career home run to provide a walk-off victory in game one and stole five bases over two games to move her season total to 20.
 
Her heroics in game one saved the Storm from suffering their first conference shutout of the season and scored Darrian Williams who had walked to lead off the inning.
 
SNU put up its only run of the first game in the fifth inning, taking advantage of an SE error.
 
Simmons, Haley Strawn and Lauren Renneker posted the team's only hits in the contest.
 
McElroy turned in another complete game to move to 9-3 on the season after allowing one unearned run on three hits.
 
In the second game, Bennett got the start and tossed 6.0 innings to earn the win while allowing a pair of runs on five hits with five strikeouts.
 
McElroy then tallied her second save of the year by tossing the final inning, allowing just one hit.
 
The Crimson Storm took the first lead again, this time with a pair of solo home runs in the third inning.
 
SE answered in the bottom of the third, first with an RBI ground out by Sydney Kramer that scored Simmons, and then tying the game on a Strawn double to center that plated Kelsey Overacker all the way from first base.
 
The Storm took the lead in the bottom of the fifth, taking advantage of a leadoff double by Laramie Beal who moved to third on a sac bunt by Strawn and scored on a squeeze bunt by Rachel Jones.
 
The lead then moved to 4-2 when Lacie Cook drove in Simmons on a ground out.
 
Simmons and Beal each posted three hits in the game, while Kramer, Strawn, Jones and Cook each logged an RBI.