DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern dropped the first of three games against Southern Nazarene, falling 6-5 at the Southeastern Softball Field.
SE scattered six hits across the game to score five runs and committed one error, while SNU recorded six hits and two errors. The Storm had six different players record a hit, led by
India McMurray with a home run, three RBIs and a run scored.
Emily Simmons fell to 2-4 in the circle, pitching 5.1 innings with six runs allowed on five hits and three strikeouts.
The Savage Storm struck early and exploded for four runs in the bottom of the first behind two hits. Walks by
Laci Larsen and E. Simmons, along with a base hit from
Iliana Olivares, helped load the bases with one out. The first run reached safely on a sacrifice flyout by
Lorryn Johnson before McMurray blasted the first pitch she saw over the left field wall for a three-run home run.
SE and SNU traded a run in the following inning, with the Crimson Storm scoring a run on one hit and a walk. Southeastern answered back in the bottom half of the second with a run to re-establish its four-run edge, 5-1.
Susan Edwards knocked a single into rightfield and later stole second, and an error by the SNU infield on the next batter would plate Edwards from second.
The third inning was the first frame in the game that both sides posted zeros, but the Crimson Storm would add to their score in the fourth with a run, 5-2. SE and SNU posted another scoreless inning in the fifth, and that was quickly followed by a four-run frame in the sixth for Southern Nazarene. All four runs by SNU came on one hit, as they sent a grand slam over the center field wall.
From there, Southeastern was held to two hits in the final frames and was inches away from walking off the game in the seventh on a flyout to right-center field by E. Simmons. SE (7-11, 2-2) will look to even the series in game one of tomorrow's doubleheader, starting at noon from the Southeastern Softball Field.
