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| Ashley Winter |
The Lady Miners can go ahead and make their reservations for a trip to Peoria in two weeks.
UMR bounced back from a tough 2-1, nine-inning loss to No. 10-ranked Southern Illinois Edwardsville in the first game of a doubleheader Sunday and routed the Cougars 8-0 in the nightcap at the UMR Softball Field.
That victory, coupled with other results around the Great Lakes Valley Conference Sunday, locks up a spot in the GLVC Tournament that starts May 4 in East Peoria, Ill. UMR improved to 24-13 overall and 12-8 in the GLVC with only a doubleheader at Rockhurst next Sunday left on the schedule; the bottom six teams in the GLVC standings all have at least 12 losses through Sunday's action.
The Lady Miners grabbed control in game two in the third inning, starting when pitcher Ashley Wallingford got out of a two-on, no-out situation. After getting a strikeout and a ball hit right back to her, Wallingford got Courtney Mall to fly out to right to end the inning.
With that momentum, the Lady Miners put three runs on the board in the bottom half of the frame, which started when Krista Porterfield singled with one out. Kandi Wieberg followed that by blasting a double over Mall's head in center, then Ashley Winter dumped a single into left to put UMR on top.
Wieberg scored on a groundout by Kelsey Musselman, then Rachel Wilkinson belted a single to left center to drive in Winter with the third run of the inning.
UMR tacked on two more runs in the fourth with Wieberg singled up the middle to drive in Lauren Feltmann and Coley Naughton. The Lady Miners then proceeded to close out the game on the eight-run rule with a three-run outburst in the fifth.
With one out, Emily Tucker reached on an infield hit and Feltmann followed that with a hit to center. Naughton singled into the gap in left center to bring home Tucker, then a two-out infield single by Porterfield loaded the bases.
Wieberg reached on an error by third baseman Lauren Zembruski, who bobbled the batted ball and then was late to third in trying to get what would have been an inning-ending force out. The error allowed Feltmann to score, then Winter slapped a single up the middle to drive in the game-ending run.
Wallingford allowed just four hits and fanned three in her five innings of work.
UMR got four hits of its 12 hits from Winter, while Wieberg and Porterfield had two hits apiece.
In game one, the Lady Miners couldn't get a win for Jen O'Hara, who held the Cougars hitless for the first seven innings.
O'Hara did walk seven batters and one of them came across to score in the fourth. Mall led off the inning by reaching on a bases on balls, then stole second and third; on the second stolen bases, Naughton's throw sailed into left field to allow Mall to score.
That lead held up until the seventh when the Lady Miners put together a game-tying rally. Musselman singled to start the inning and pinch-runner Becky Davis was sacrificed to second. Tucker singled home Davis to tie the game and went to second on the throw, giving UMR a chance to win the game.
However, SIUE called on Kaitlin Colosimo to get the Cougars out of the inning and she struck out Feltmann and got Naughton on a pop out to escape the inning.
Zembruski broke up O'Hara's no-hitter in the eighth with a double that a diving rightfielder Allison Plummer couldn't quite reach. O'Hara got out of the eighth, but the Cougars got to her in the ninth and took the lead on a two-out RBI single by Nicole Beecher.
Despite the seven walks, O'Hara did strike out six and allowed just three hits over the nine innings.
Wieberg had two doubles on the afternoon -- one in each game -- and put her name in the record books in the process. She has 19 two-base hits on the season, tying Sabrina Greenwell's single-season record set in 2001, and the 40 in her career broke Greenwell's four-year total of 39. As a team, the Lady Miners have a school record 83 doubles on the year.
GREAT GAME ON SUNDAY....