(Courtesy Saint Louis Athletics)
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Saint Louis set a school season record for home runs and defeated Southeast Missouri State 6-3 in game one of a doubleheader Wednesday afternoon at Southeast Softball Complex.
SEMO won the nightcap, 5-4.
The Billikens (29-16) began the day needing three home runs to break the school mark of 46 set by the 2010 team. They got those in the opener and added another in game two.
Alex Nickel homered in each game, giving her a team-high-tying nine for the season.
The Billikens banged out 13 hits in the opener, led by Macie Wheeler’s career-high three. Nickel, Elizabeth Everingham, Allie Macfarlane and Alyssa Tarquinio collected two hits apiece.
Saint Louis took a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Lindsay Friedman drew a one-out walk, stole second with two outs and scored on a throwing error.
After SEMO grabbed a 2-1 edge in the bottom of the first, the Billikens answered with two runs of their own in the top of the second.
Tarquinio led off the inning with her fifth home run of the season, and Wheeler and Emma Buckles followed with singles. After a pair of force outs left runners at the corners, Buckles scored the go-ahead run on a double steal.
The Bills made it 4-2 in the third on Everingham’s seventh homer of the year, a leadoff blast that tied the school record.
Kayla Fortner went deep for SEMO in the bottom of the third to make it a one-run game again. But that was all the Redhawks would tally against Brianna Lore (15-9), while the Billikens added single runs in the fourth and sixth innings.
Josie Knesel and Nickel singled to begin the fourth, and with two away, Knesel swiped home. In the sixth, Nickel led off by launching her eighth home run of the year – the Billikens’record-setting 47th long ball – to increase the lead to 6-3.
SEMO threatened in the fifth and sixth, putting two runners aboard with just one out in both innings. But Lore induced an inning-ending double play in the fifth and chalked up the final two outs in the sixth on a fly ball and a ground ball.
Lore struck out six, allowed eight hits and walked just one. The junior left-hander has issued just two free passes over her last five outings (28 1/3 innings).
In game two, SLU again plated an unearned run in the first. Nickel reached on an error, stole second, moved to third on an Everingham single and scored on the first of Lore’s two singles.
Nickel hit her second homer of the day in the second inning. It followed Knesel’s two-out infield single, and Saint Louis led 3-0.
In the fourth, Buckles led off with a single but was caught stealing. Knesel re-ignited the rally with a double, however, and scored on Friedman’s two-out single for a 4-0 Billiken advantage.
SEMO (12-23) got back in it on Riley Hayes’ three-run home run in the fourth. It was the Redhawks’ only hit off starter Maddie Baalman, who worked four innings. The hosts tallied the tying and go-ahead runs in the fifth.
Saint Louis travels to Philadelphia for a three-game Atlantic 10 Conference series with Saint Joseph’s April 25-26. Saturday’s doubleheader and Sunday’s single game are scheduled for an 11 a.m. (CT) first pitch.
