Box Score

March 8, 2008

By Kyle Herm
www.SIUSalukis.com

HONOLULU - The Southern Illinois softball team fell to No.22-ranked Washington, 11-1, in five innings Saturday morning at the Malihini Kipa Aloha Tournament. The Salukis concluded round-robin play with a 2-3 record, and will compete in a seeded bracket for the final day of the tournament on Sunday.

SIU dropped to 11-10 on the season, and 0-5 against ranked opponents this year.

Southern Illinois opened up a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on a sacrifice fly by Wilson.

Stein led-off with a single into left-center field, and following an illegal pitch and sacrifice bunt, she advanced to third base.

Back-to-back walks loaded the bases for Wilson, who lifted a high fly ball into center field to allow Stein to scoot home.

The RBI sacrifice fly was Wilson's ninth run driven in during the tournament.

A drought hit the offense however after the first inning, as the Salukis would only knock-out two more hits off Huskies' starter, Caitlin Noble.

Washington, who was held to one hit in the first two innings by Saluki freshman right-hander Nikki Waters, scored three runs on four hits to take a, 3-1, lead in the top of the third.

UW centerfielder Alyson McWherter led-off with a double down the left field line, and scored on a single two batters later to tie the game, 1-1.

With two outs, the Huskies struck again with a two-run single by shortstop Morgan Stuart that just escaped the glove of sophomore second baseman Alicia Garza to make it, 3-1.

The Huskies broke open the two-run ballgame in the top of the fourth inning to score seven runs on seven hits.

UW led-off with a single by Alicia Blake and scored two batters later with two outs on a single by Amanda Fleischman to put the Huskies up, 4-1. Washington followed with six more runs on three hits and one Saluki error to boost its lead to nine, 10-1.

Washington added one more run on an RBI-single by Bailey Stenson in the top of the fifth to make the final, 11-1.

Waters fell to 6-4 on the season, while Noble improved to 9-3.

Junior third baseman Katie Wagner also went 2-for-2 with a pair of singles in the game.

Southern Illinois will either play at 10 a.m. as the No. 4 or No. 5 seed, or at 2 p.m. as the No. 3 seed in the bracket play on Sunday of the Malihini Kipa Aloha Tournament.