SIU softball got its revenge on Evansville pitcher Morgan Florey on Wednesday. 

It took nine innings, but the Salukis avoided a season sweep from the Purple Aces with a 3-2 victory in Evansville.

SIU’s starter Brianna Jones (22-10, 1.79 ERA) and Evansville starter Morgan Florey (15-10, 1.99 ERA) entered the contest as the only Missouri Valley Conference pitchers with sub-2.00 ERAs and, outside of one tough inning each, both performed as such.

Jones and Florey had batters guessing all day, combining for 18 strikeouts.

Florey got the loss, allowing eight hits and the three runs after shutting out the Dawgs (31-17, 14-9 Missouri Valley Conference) on April 19.

Jones’ 22nd win and drop in ERA to 1.79 extended her MVC leads in those categories.

The game was tied for all but 10 at-bats of the contest.

Evansville (22-24, 10-13 MVC) took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third after RBI singles from Florey and junior outfielder Chandra Parr.

The next half-inning, junior first baseman Shaye Harre erased the lead with a two-run home run. Harre has pushed her career-high home run total to 12 and has 38 RBIs on the season, creeping closer to her career high of 43.

Later, junior center fielder Merri Anne Patterson led off the seventh with a double, but was unable to score.

SIU also had the bases loaded with no one out in the top of the eighth, but freshman outfielder Hanna Porter and sophomore outfielder Jessica Heese strikeouts coupled with a Patterson flyout ended the inning with no harm done.

After two innings of coming close, the Salukis broke through in the ninth with a RBI single from freshman left fielder Eyrika Brandenburg, her 14th RBI on the season.

Jones got three quick outs in the ninth to close out the game. She finished allowing six hits across nine innings with 10 strikeouts. 

SIU is now tied for third place in the conference with Northern Iowa, but holds the head-to-head tiebreaker. 

The Salukis will close out the regular season with a three-game set against Wichita State on Saturday and Sunday in Wichita, Kan.

Sean Carley can be reached at [email protected] or at 618-536-3307.