EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - SIUE softball earned its first Ohio Valley Conference win of the season Saturday in a rain-shortened 6-1 victory over Austin Peay at Cougar Field.
Rain and lightning caused Saturday's first scheduled game to be stopped in the top of the seventh inning. After more than an hour of waiting, the game was called because of continued poor conditions. SIUE and Austin Peay will reschedule for a noon doubleheader Sunday at Cougar Field.
SIUE softball improved to 9-15 overall and 1-3 in the OVC. Amanda Lambrecht evened her season record to 6-6 with Saturday's win. Austin Peay remains winless in OVC play at 0-4 and is 6-12 overall.
"I felt like we hit the ball well today, and Amanda Lambrecht had another great performance for us," said SIUE Head Coach Sandy Montgomery.
Lambrecht struck out seven in her six innings of work. The Cougar junior allowed one hit over the first five innings and retired 11 straight batters at one point.
Four SIUE hitters had multiple hits, including two each from Samantha Stanicek, Chelsea Yankolovich, Taylor Tooley, and Whitney Davis. Six different players drove in a run.
The Cougars would score twice in the first four innings off Austin Peay starter Lauren deCastro with RBI hits from Tooley and Rebecca Gray. SIUE's big inning was the sixth when it tallied four runs off the third Austin Peay pitcher of the game Taylor Mills. The Cougars would send 10 batters to the plate and pick up five of their 12 hits in the inning.
Montgomery said the Cougars missed a few signals and didn't execute a squeeze bunt, but the team was good enough Saturday to pull off the win.
"Overall, I can't complain," she said. "It's our first conference win. Hopefully, we'll get some sunshine tomorrow."
