May 12, 2007

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. - Top-seeded Southern Illinois Edwardsville scored three runs in each of the first two innings Saturday and earned a spot in Sunday's championship game with a 6-4 victory over No. 6 seed Ferris State in a Division II Great Lakes Regional winner's-bracket battle.

SIUE (44-8), ranked fifth nationally, took a 1-0 lead when Jodie Ohlau homered on the first pitch of the game. Courtney Mall and Ashley Price followed with a double and single, respectively, and Libby Lenart's single scored Mall to make it 2-0.

After Kaeleigh Rousey sacrificed, Sabra McCune delivered a one-out single that plated Price and chased Ferris State starter Sarah Mueller (12-8).

Ohlau began the second inning with a single, and a throwing error on Mall's sacrifice gave the Cougars two on and nobody out. Following Price's sacrifice, Lenart blasted a three-run home run that gave SIUE a 6-0 cushion.

Ferris State (31-16) dented the scoreboard in the second with two outs on a wild pitch following singles by Katie Kraai, McKenzie West and Holly Bruntjens. The Bulldogs tallied another two-out run in the third when Krystle Bailey singled, advanced to second on a walk to Amanda Jager and scooted home on Kraai's RBI single.

Ferris State made it more interesting in the sixth when Laura Crower singled and Bruntjens lofted a two-run homer that cut the SIUE lead in half. McCune (17-5) escaped the inning without further damage, and Kaitlin Colosimo pitched the seventh to register her second save.

Ohlau, Mall and Lenart all had two hits for SIUE. Kraai was 3-for-4 including a double, and Bruntjens added two hits for Ferris State.

McCune struck out seven, walked three and allowed seven hits in six innings of work. Bruntjens yielded two earned runs, five hits and two walks while fanning six in her 6 2/3 innings.