RICHMOND, Ky. - Austin Peay State University's softball team bounced back from a heartbreaking 3-2 loss, in its Ohio Valley Conference opener Saturday afternoon versus Eastern Kentucky to take a wild 8-5 victory in the doubleheader's second game at Gertrude Hood Field.

It didn't take long for the Lady Govs (11-17, 5-9 OVC) to show it had recovered from the first-game loss by getting back-to-back singles from sophomore Lauren deCastro and freshman Paige Neely to open the contest.

After Eastern Kentucky (15-17, 7-4 OVC) got sophomore Caitlyn Anderson to line out on a bunt attempt, Colonels first baseman threw the ball away attempting to double up Neely,  allowing deCastro to advance to third. The error was the first of nine total in the game by the two teams, including five by EKU.

Senior Ashley Bolda then drove in deCastro with the game's first run with a groundout. Junior Morgan Brewer and senior Amy Mills followed with back-to-back singles, with the latter driving in Bolda to make it 2-0.

The Colonels would make their second error of the inning, a dropped fly ball, on senior Catie Cozart's deep drive to left field, allowing Bolda and Brewer to come around to score to give Austin Peay a 4-0 lead.

Eastern Kentucky took advantage of two APSU errors in the bottom of the inning to score a run. with Katie Tackett driving in the run with a double.

Austin Peay added to its lead with single runs in the second and fourth innings to push its lead out to 6-1.

The second-inning run came off a dropped popup, with deCastro hustling all the way from first to score, while the fourth-inning run came on a home run to center field by red-shirt junior Jessica Ryan, her second roundtripper of the day.

Eastern Kentucky would put together its day's best inning in the bottom of the fourth, scoring three runs on four hits and a Lady Govs error, to cut the deficit down to just two runs, 6-4.

But that would be as close as the Colonels would get as the Lady Govs scored a run in both the fifth and sixth innings, with Amy Mills doubling in sophomore Taylor Mills in the fifth and deCastro scoring in the sixth off an EKU error.

Amy Mills finished the game with three hits and two RBI, while deCastro scored three times.

Bolda and freshman Lauren Bradley also had hits for the Lady Govs.

The Colonels tacked on a run in the bottom of the seventh, but Taylor Mills, who came in to relieve Brewer, closed out the game to pick up her season's first win three decisions.

In the opener, Eastern Kentucky jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first three innings, but Austin Peay tied the game 2-2 in the top of the fourth inning on a two-run home run to left field by Ryan.

Neely, deCastro and Brewer also had hits for Austin Peay in the loss.

Eastern Kentucky scored what proved to be the game-winning run in the bottom of the sixth on Larkyn Wood's sixth home run of the season.

The Lady Colonels run in the first inning came on a double by Raquel Howes, while the third-inning run came in off a Howes single.

--AP--