PEORIA, IL. - The Lindenwood Softball team (28-23, 17-10 OVC) fell to SEMO in their opening game of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament on Wednesday night by a final score of 5-2. The Lions outhit the Redhawks 11-7 behind multi-hit performances from
Emily Geary,
Dallis Darnell, and
Teryn Brown, but SEMO carried their momentum over from their 10-2 win over Western Illinois earlier in the day to move on to the OVC Tournament quarterfinal round.
SEMO jumped out to a 5-0 lead after 1 and a half innings played behind five hits, but that would be all that the Redhawks would manufacture for the game offensively. After the Lions loaded the bases in the bottom of the first but couldn't score a run, Darnell and Brown recorded back-to-back one out singles in the bottom of the second inning to bring the offense back to life.
Madisen Noll put Lindenwood on the board with an RBI double to centerfield following the back-to-back singles to cut the deficit down to 5-1, and
Samantha Roulanaitis limited the Redhawks by recording six strikeouts and allowing three hits and no earned runs over 4.1 innings of work to keep the Lions in the contest.
The final run of the game would come in the bottom of the fourth thanks to Brown's second hit of the game which resulted in an RBI single to centerfield that scored Geary to make it a 5-2 game. Lindenwood had their opportunities later in the game having a base runner reach safely each of the last three innings, but the Lions were unable to bring them home and ultimately fell in the OVC tournament opener.
Lindenwood will now play the loser of UT Martin and SIUE tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. in an elimination game. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
