The Peacock softball team completed their run at the 2011 Teri (Mathis) Zenner Memorial Classic in Joplin, Missouri this afternoon. Upper Iowa split a pair of games today dropping their first contest versus Illinois-Springfield, 10-2, but rebounded to earn a win in their final game versus Wisconsin-Parkside, 6-5.
Upper Iowa (4-9) will head south to Kansas next weekend for a pair of double headers in Pittsburgh, Kansas. The Peacocks will face the Gorillas of Pitt State on Friday and the Lions of Missouri Southern State on Saturday. Both double headers are scheduled for noon starts.
Recaps from the two games can be found below.
Illinois-Springfield 10 – Upper Iowa 2 (5)
Illinois-Springfield jumped all over the Peacocks with five runs in the first inning and four more in the second on their way to a 10-2 victory in five innings.
Upper Iowa put their runs on the board in the second and fifth innings thanks to big hits off the bat of Erin Bennek. The Peacock shortstop homered in the second and drove Hannah Jones across the plate with a double in the fifth. Chelsey Sechrest added a pair of hits and Jones had the final UIU hit.
Brooklyn Koranda threw well in relief of starter Ashley Brown. Koranda surrender one run on three hits while striking out three in 3.1 innings. Brown lasted only 1.2 innings allowing nine runs, only three of which were earned, on seven hits.
Upper Iowa 6 – Wisconsin-Parkside 5
The Peacocks scored three runs in the top of the first, but fell behind by a run after the second inning. Upper Iowa added a run in the third, fifth and seventh innings to claim a 6-5 win over the Rangers. UIU took advantage of 6 UWP errors in the game.
Robin Schaefer got UIU on the board first taking home on a double steal. Sechrest drove Jones in with a sacrifice fly and Trisha Hagensick drove Bennek across the plate with a single to left. The Rangers rallied with three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning thanks to four hits and one Peacock error. The damage could have been worse but UIU cut a runner down at the plate and recorded the final two outs with the bases loaded.
After UWP added a run in the second, the Peacocks tied the game at 4-4 in the third on an unearned run thanks to an rbi-sac bunt by Hagensick. Upper Iowa took a short-lived 5-4 lead in the fifth when Sechrest led the inning off with a double and scored on a Kayla Bergman infield single. The Rangers tied the game once again in the bottom of the inning, but Upper Iowa came through in the seventh.
Hagensick doubled to the gap in left center with one out and came home when Ashley Brown followed with a double to center for the game-winning rbi.
Sarah Dec threw a complete game allowing five runs on 12 hits while striking out a pair of Rangers. Schaefer recorded four hits for the Peacocks, while Hagensick and Brown each tallied a pair of hits. The team had 13 hits in the game as eight of the nine batters got a hit.
