The Racer softball team played a double header against the University of Evansville on Wednesday.
The Racers lost the first game 3-0. Evansville scored in the first inning to take an early 1-0 lead.
Evansville scored again in the second and fifth innings due to Murray State errors.
“We committed way more errors than we have been committing defensively so far this year,” said Head Coach Kara Amundson. “Mental errors really got the better of us.”
The Racers had a total of five errors throughout the game. Senior pitcher Shelby Kosmecki got the loss but handled the situation well, said Amundson.
The second game started out similar to the first. Evansville scored two runs in the first inning to lead the Racers 2-0.
Senior Christian Cox singled to start off the third inning for Murray State. She was bunted over to second and made her way to third on a wild pitch. Sophomore Mo Ramsey grounded out to score Cox, giving Murray State their first run of the game.
Evansville extended its lead to 3-1 in the third, but the Racers turned around and scored two more runs of their own in the fourth inning.
Junior Leslie Bridges homered to left field, scoring senior Ellyn Troup and tying the game. Murray State continued their streak in the fifth with a three run homer by sophomore Alexa Becker, which gave the Racers a 6-3 lead.
Evansville was unable to come back and Murray State got the win to split the series.
“We had much more offensive fire power,” said Amundson. “We had much better mental approaches at the plate.”
Amundson said sophomore pitcher CheyAnne Gaskey threw a good game and came home with the win for the Racers. This series brought the team to 12-15 for the season.
“We let the first game slip away,” said sophomore Alexa Becker. “We fought back really hard in the second game and got a really good win.”
Amundson said she was proud of the team being able to leave Evansville on a positive note after the rough first game.
The Racers will head to Eastern Illinois this weekend for a conference series. Eastern Illinois is currently half a game ahead of Murray State in the conference.
“It’s a big weekend for us,” said Becker. “I hope to get a few wins, if not all three.”
Becker said she believes the team is playing more confident, having fun and trusting each other, which will be important going into the weekend.
Amundson said she believes the pitching staff and the offense are in a good place and have become much more consistent.
The Racers first game against Eastern Illinois is today at 4 p.m.
Story by Megan Kavy, Staff writer.