The SIU softball team climbed to over .500 for the first time this season and remained unbeaten in the Missouri Valley Conference with their weekend sweep of the Valparaiso Beacons on March 21 and 22.
The Dawgs saw their freshman pitcher Emma Gipson earn her first collegiate win on Friday when went 5 ⅓ innings and gave up 7 hits and 4 runs. Kaytee Dahlstrom came in and finished the game for SIU, pitching 1 ⅔ innings and giving up only one hit.
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The Salukis came out on fire in the top of the first, pounding Valpo’s Azayla Lopez for 5 runs on 4 hits before Lopez was pulled. Jackie Lis opened the scoring with a solo home run and after Anna Carder, Erin Lee and Addi Baker all reached base, Emily Williams brought Carder home on a flyout to center.
Mikaela Coburn cleared the bases with a home run to make it 5-0, and Amanda Knutson scored when Sage Grann doubled into right center. Grann also scored off an Emma Austin single, and the Dawgs finished the first inning up 7-0.
Valpo answered with 3 runs in the bottom of the first, but Gipson settled down and kept the Beacons from touching home again until the bottom of the 6th inning.
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SIU tacked on 3 more runs in the top of the seventh, with back-to-back home runs from Lee and Baker, leading to the final score of 10-4.
The Saluki offense continued rolling in their first game on Saturday; Austin scored on a fielding error, and Williams crushed a grand slam to center field to put SIU up 5-0 with no outs in the top of the first.
Things didn’t get any better for the Beacons in the top of the second; they surrendered another 5 runs, with two coming off a homer from Lis and one each from Lee, Chloe Scroggins and Baker.
Valpo got on the board in the bottom of the second, but were still down 10-1, and fell down 11-1 when Williams hit another homer in the top of the fourth. Valpo scored two more runs off Kiana McDowell in the bottom of the fourth, but SIU followed that with their second 7-run inning.
Lis, Baker and Lee scored again, and Williams, Coburn, Sarah Cook and Charley Pursley all crossed home as unearned runs after a series of errors by Valpo’s defense.
Williams tied the single-game program record with 8 RBI in the game in the Dawgs’ 18-3 win.
Saturday’s second game, a 6-3 win, was comparatively quiet. Mckenzie Newcomb pitched the entire game to earn her 10th win, giving 1 earned run and punching out four batters.
In the top of the first, Austin stole second after singling and scored on a single from Carder, who was hitting in the number four spot instead of the three. Lis scored in the top of the third off a fielding error to make it 2-0, but Valpo took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the third after two unearned runs scored.
Williams hit her third home run of the series and scored Carder and Lee to make it 6-3, which turned out to be the final total.
After the weekend, SIU is 8-0 in the Valley and 16-14 overall. They have the highest batting percentage in the MVC (.295) and are second in ERA (3.41).
Up next, the Dawgs will head down to Nashville on March 28-30 to take on Belmont, who is currently 7-1 in the MVC.
Sports reporter Ryan Grieser can be reached at rgrieser@dailyegyptian.com. To stay up to date on all your southern Illinois news, be sure to follow The Daily Egyptian on Facebook.
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