The Cardinals have the Cubs (and Don Denkinger), Calista Flockhart has food and pretty much all of professional baseball has the New York Yankees.
But the Saint Louis University softball team has the University of Missouri as its arch-rival. And while the blood doesn’t run nearly as hot between these two teams, the lines will be clearly drawn later today when the Bills travel to Columbia, Mo., to take on the Tigers.
The Bills, after finishing last week with a 3-2 record, including a double-header sweep of UT-Martin and a 3-1 win over Louisville, will square off against the Tigers in a double-header starting at 5 p.m. The Bills and Tigers split last year’s overall series 2-2, so, needless to say, each has a score to settle this year.
The Bills started off last weekend well, with a 3-1 win against conference power Louisville in the first game of a double-header on Saturday. Nicole Bohnenstiehl picked up her 11th win of the year for the Billikens, pitching a complete game and scattering four hits over the span of seven innings. The Bills’ scoring effort was highlighted by a single from AshLeigh Williams which scored Beth Puttcamp and tied the game 1-1 in the top of the sixth. The Bills put some space between themselves and the Cardinals in the top of the seventh when Ashlee Heady hit a two-out double which plated Adrienne May and Cori Bittick, who reached on a single and a Louisville error, respectively.
However, game two was a different story for the Bills, as Louisville jumped out to an early three-run lead in the second and never looked back, tallying nine runs in the shortened five-inning game.
In the series finale on Sunday, the Cardinals scored two runs in their half of the first inning and were able to make that lead stand for the entire game.
The Billikens had the bases loaded in both the first and third innings and had runners in scoring position in the second, fourth and sixth innings but were unable to put any additional runs on the board.
Bohnenstiehl pitched the entire game and, aside from the first inning, was once again masterful, but the Bills just came out on the losing end of this low-scoring affair.
Against UT-Martin, the Bills dominated, holding them to one run during the two-game double-header, and thanks to great pitching led by Bohnenstiehl and Kristin Rossi, one-hit the Skyhawks in the first game for a 4-1 win, and gave up only four hits in the second, a 2-0 win.
