The Saint Louis University softball team had a busy week, winning three out of their last five games. Over the weekend, the Billikens played Southern Mississippi, winning the first game on Friday afternoon 1-0 in eight innings, only to lose right after 3-2, also in eight innings. The Bills came back that Saturday to defeat Southern Miss, 1-0 again. On Tuesday, the Bills won their first game 4-1 against SMS, but lost the second game 8-3.
The Bills started the weekend off right with a victory over Southern Miss. Senior pitcher Nicole Bohnenstiehl, picked up her 12th win, and didn’t allow a hit until the seventh inning and then only allowed two singles. “We knew going into this weekend that these games were important for getting into the tournament. We are currently ranked fifth and they were sixth and we knew that we had to win or we would have gone down in the ranking and only the top six teams make it to the tournament,” Beth Yagge said.
Southern Miss couldn’t convert the hits into runs. In the bottom of the seventh, the bases were loaded for SLU, but Southern Miss had a double play and struck a batter out to send the game into an extra inning.
SLU’s win came when AshLeigh Williams walked after being hit by a pitch with two outs. Adrie Bogaars hit a double out to right center and Williams ran the bases and scored, giving the win to SLU, 1-0.
The next game SLU was not as lucky. Southern Miss scored their first run in the sixth inning and then another one in the seventh. In the bottom of the seventh the Bills were able to score two runs of their own to tie the game. Pinch hitter Logan Justice singled with the bases loaded to bring in Williams and Adrienne May. In the eighth Southern Miss was able to score one more giving the loss to SLU 3-2.
“We had a hard time putting hits together and leaving girls on base. We’ve had a problem with that all season and we haven’t been scoring as much as we would like,” Yagge said.
Saturday, SLU was ready to face Southern Miss again, and came away with the win. The one run of the game came when May ran to first and advanced to second from a Southern Miss throwing error. May advanced to third on a ground out by Kerri Higgins. When the Southern Miss pitcher threw a wild pitch, May took advantage by sprinting home for the win.
“We were determined to win that game. They had a cocky attitude and you always want to go out and beat those teams with attitudes like that,” Yagge said.
Last Tuesday the Bills played another double-header, this time against SMS, winning the first game, but losing the second. The scoring started for the Bills in the bottom of the third when Ashlee Heady singled to bring in Higgins. The Bills then got two more runs when Bogaars singled with the bases loaded. In the bottom of the fourth Bohnenstiehl had a sacrifice fly to center, bringing in another run. The Bears finally answered back scoring one in the sixth.
The second game proved to be a different story for the Bills losing 8-3. The Bears took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second off of a home run and added a second run in the second inning. SLU answered back in the third with a run of their own. SMS built on the lead in the fourth when they scored one run off a homer and then two more off of three hits.
“Sometimes we get behind and and we seem to almost give up when we need to play harder. In this game we got down early and we just folded instead of fighting back,” Yagge said.
The Bears used one hit, four walks and one SLU error to add three more runs to the score. The Bills could mount enough of a rally and couldn’t catch the Bears late in the game.
