SE Tops ESU in Sub-Region Championship

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 MANKATO, Minn. – Southeastern bounced back from a loss in game one and scored five runs over the final two innings to win the Central Sub-Region 2 Tournament with a 6-2 victory over Emporia State in Mankato, Minn.
 
The Savage Storm will next face Augustana which won the Central Sub-Region 1 Tournament on Sunday as the No. 4 seed with a 9-8 win over the host and top-seed Winona State.
 
The victory moves SE to 41-18 overall on the year.
 
The win in the sub-regional is the second for the Storm since the format was adopted as the team hosted and won a sub-regional as a member of the South Central region during the 2009 season, the first the format was used.
 
Laramie Beal would single home Jessica Simmons in the bottom of the first inning to put the Storm up 1-0 early.
 
ESU neither team would get anything moving until the Hornets turned in a pair of RBI doubles in the top of the fifth to leave SE down 2-1.
 
Courtney Riddle would tie the game with an RBI groundout that scored Sydney Kramer in the bottom of the fifth.
 
Conner Harmon kicked off the bottom of the sixth inning by drawing a one-out walk and was replaced on the base paths by Shaina Crites.
 
That was followed by a Simmons single and a Lacie Cook bunt single to load the bases.
 
Kramer then put the Storm in front with an RBI single to right field that plated Crites, and Beal followed one batter later with a two-run single up the middle that scored Simmons and Cook.
 
After an infield single by Haley Strawn, Riddle would end the scoring in the inning with a sac fly to centerfield that plated Kramer for a 6-2 lead.
 
Mindy McElroy would retire the Hornets in order in the seventh to seal the win.
 
McElroy received credit for the win, her 27^th, after tossing 2.0 innings and allowing just one hit, but it was a staff effort to earn the win.
 
Shayna Milam last started a game on April 25, but took the ball first in the final game on Sunday and tossed 4.2 innings, allowing two runs on four hits with a pair of strikeouts.
 
Jacee Bennett faced just one batter, but recorded one of the biggest outs of the game by retiring ESU's number two hitter with a runner at third in the fifth inning to hold them to just two runs.
 
SE collected 11 hits in the contest, with Beal posting a 3-for-3 outing, while Kramer and Strawn each added a pair of hits.
 
Beal drove in three of the team's runs, while Riddle added two RBI and Kramer turned in one of her own.
 
In the first game of the day, Southeastern collected six hits and left seven stranded as it suffered its first loss in regional play, falling 7-2 to ESU., forcing the if necessary game.
 
The top four spots of the lineup picked up five of the team's six hits, with Cook going 2-for-3, while Simmons, Kramer and Beal each added a hit, as did Arianna Jones.
 
Cook and Jones each added an RBI as well.
 
McElroy tossed a complete game going 7.0 innings and allowing seven runs, five earned, on nine hits with a pair of strikeouts.
 
ESU jumped to a 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning, but SE had an answer in the bottom half as a Cook RBI single plated Simmons to cut the deficit to 2-1.
 
However, the Hornets would take advantage of a pair of SE errors in the fifth to push its lead to 4-1, followed by another run in the sixth to make it 5-1.
 
Arianna Jones would single home Rachel Jones who led off the inning with a walk to close to 5-2, but the Hornets would add two more int he top of the seventh to fashion the 7-2 final.