CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – A grand slam from Danielle Liermann, Friday at the Southeast Softball Complex, proved to be all the runs Austin Peay State University's softball team would need in its Ohio Valley Conference victory versus Southeast Missouri, with the Governors coming away with a 7-3 victory, before dropping the second game, 15-6.
Austin Peay (8-34, 4-18 OVC) entered the top of the third inning trailing 1-0, but Courtney Brower led off the inning by getting hit by a pitch – her school record 37th time – and moved all the way to third base when SEMO center fielder misplayed a Chandler Grove single, which also allowed Groves to reach second base. Groves would lead APSU with three first-game hits.
Kacy Acree followed with a base on balls, to load the bases, and bring up Liermann, the team's leading RBI producer. She wouldn't disappoint as she blasted the first pitch she saw deep over the left field fence for a grand-slam home run. It was her career's first grand slam and the first grand slam by Austin Peay since Laurel Burroughs hit one, April 19, 2015, at Jacksonville State.
The four RBIs briought Liermann's 2016 total to 34, the most by a freshman in school history and tying for the sixth-most Governors single-season total.
Natalie Ayala (2-10) took it from there, scattering eight hits and three runs while walking and two and fanning two in the complete-game victory.
The complete game marked the eighth straight time Ayala has gone at least six innings in a start.
But Austin Peay wasn't done with the long-ball, with Groves smoking a ball over the left field fence in the top of the fourth, also scoring Erica Inagaki, who had singled, for a two-run shot to make it 6-2.
The Govs would add an insurance run in the top of the sixth on an Acree RBI single, with Southeast Missouri (13-31, 7-16 OVC) scoring its final run in the bottom of the inning on a Darby Pruett home run.
The two teams waited out a rain/lightning delay of just under two hours before they could start Game 2. That long delay seemingly cost the Govs momentum, with SEMO (14-31, 8-15 OVC) scoring in every inning, including an eight-run fourth inning, to break the game open.
APSU did find positive in the Game 2 loss.
Niya Sparks would tie a school single-game record with two home runs in the loss, driving in four runs overall, while Sidney Hooper added a solo shot and Carly Mattson went 2-for-2 at the plate, with an RBI.
Weather permitting, the two teams are scheduled to wrap-up their three-game series, 10 a.m., Sunday with a single game.
Check back at Austin Peay's official athletic website LetsGoPeay.com or on Twitter @AustinPeaySB for any further schedule changes.
--AP--
