CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Kayla Davidson drove in three runs while Lauren de Castro set a career high in strikeouts, Saturday, as Austin Peay State University's softball team earned a split in the first two contests of its three-game Ohio Valley Conference series with Southeast Missouri State University. The Lady Govs won the opener, 4-1, before falling in the nightcap, 13-4, at the Southeast Softball Complex.

The series; rubber game will be played 1 p.m., Sunday on the SEMO campus,

In Saturday's opener, Austin Peay (15-16, 4-4 OVC) scored first in the top of the third inning with Marissa Lake stating the rally with a two-out up-the-middle single. Davidson followed with a double to left-center field, with Lake coming all the way around to score from first to make it 1-0.

Mel Pavel then smacked an opposite-field double to right field, scoring Davidson to make it 2-0 Lady Govs.

That would be all the runs Austin Peay and de Castro (10-6) needed as she limited Southeast Missouri (7-17, 2-4 OVC) to one run on five hits, while striking out a career-high 11 Redhawks hitters, including four of the game's final six hitters.

Southeast Missouri scored its' lone run in the bottom of the sixth inning on Haylee Krack's home run, one of her three first-game hits.

Austin Peay added two insurance runs in the eighth inning to push its lead to three runs. Pinch hitter Niya Sparks got the inning going by reaching on a hit by pitch, with Amanda De Vries returning to run for Sparks. De Vries moved to second base on an infield out and to third on an infield single by Lake.

That brought up Davidson, who ripped a shot over the Redhawks right fielder's head for her game's second double, scoring De Vires and Lake.

Davidson and Lake finished the game with two hits each.

The Lady Govs weren't as fortunate with the Redhawks in the second game as SEMO scored at least three runs in four of the five innings played, while recording 14 hits against three APSU pitchers.

Austin Peay finished Game 2 with nine hits overall, with Davidson and Kristin Whitmire each recording two hits, including doubles.

--AP--