CHATTANOOGA, TENN. -- The Southern Illinois University softball team (11-5) split two games at the Coach B Classic on Saturday at Frost Stadium. Senior ace Brianna Jones threw the fourth perfect game in SIU history in a 10-0 defeat over Saint Louis in the first matchup of the day. She became the first Saluki pitcher with a perfect game since Nikki Waters achieved the feat in 2009 against Gardner-Webb.
In game two, SIU rallied from a four-run deficit against No. 17 Kentucky (11-7) to tie it up in the seventh, but lost on a walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom half of the inning.
"There is a full history of SIU pitchers under head coach Kerri Blaylock that are special and have came close or gotten no-hitters and perfect games. I think sometimes with Brianna, we act like that is what she is supposed to do every time," associate head coach Jen Sewell said. "But it special and such a rarity to get a perfect game. She probably would tell you that she may not been perfect with all her pitches. But with her mentality right now, she is so mature and can get away with a few things, yet still dominate the game."
GAME 1 vs. Saint Louis: W, 10-0 (5 inn.)
Jones (8-3) was dominant from the first pitch against Saint Louis. In total, she retired the minimum 15 batters faced in the five-inning shutout. The hard-throwing righty struck out three Billiken batters and induced nine fly ball outs and three groundouts.
In the fifth and final inning in the circle, the standout pitcher struck out the first batter of the inning on a pitch in the dirt. Shelby Hodo quickly scooped the ball in the dirt and threw to first base to record the out. Jones then induced a softly hit fly out to right field for the second out of the inning. She clinched the perfect game and win on a weak groundout to shortstop Ashley Wood, who delivered a perfect throw to first base.
"It was nice to get the perfect game back in my home state of Tennessee in front of a lot of my friends and family," Jones said. "As a team, we have talked a lot about starting early and coming with energy and I thought we did well with that today. I am really just glad that we could respond from yesterday's loss with a good win."
On offense, the Saluki bats were hot from the start. As a team, SIU slugged a season-high 13 hits and three home runs. The three home runs were responsible for eight of the 10 runs scored. All nine starters in the batting lineup collected a hit as well.
"We had a long conversation yesterday as a team about our consistency, personality and energy," Sewell said. "I thought we saw that show up on the field today. I think that is what we can do if we are consistent. We cannot play any team too high or too low, but should instead play everybody the same. When we do that, we can get on a roll offensively."
Freshman Ashley Wood had a career day at the plate. She went 2-for-3 with a career-best two home runs and five runs batted in. It was the ninth time in SIU softball history that a freshman had two homers in a game.
Her first home run was a solo shot in the first that gave Southern a 1-0 advantage. In the fourth, she broke the game open with a grand slam over the left field wall, that was on the fair side of the foul pole by a small margin.
GAME 2 vs. Kentucky: L, 6-5
Junior transfer Claire Miller started in the circle against the No. 17 ranked Wildcats in game two. She struggled with her demand and did not retire a Kentucky batter in the outing. She walked three of her five batters faced and was replaced by sophomore transfer Holly Marousek in the first. The newcomer came into the game with the bases loaded and allowed a two-run double, which increased to SIU deficit to three runs. From there on, Marousek handled the opposing lineup and did not allow a hit for the next 2.1 innings.
After she walked two batters in third, SIU turned to Jones in relief. Jones gave up an RBI sac fly to left field, which caused Southern to trail 5-1.
Despite trailing by four, the game came down to the wire due to another impressive pitching performance by Jones and a number of spectacular plays made by the offense.
"When Brianna toes up on the mound, it gives you a sense that we are in the game," Sewell said, "I think Holly brought us to that point as well, with some big outs that she got. You can tell that Brianna got in there and kind of shut everything down. From that, we got swings and quality at bats rolling."
In the fifth, Wood delivered her third home run of the day to reduce the deficit back to three runs. On the day, Wood went 3-for-7 with five runs and seven RBI.
The score remained 5-2 until the top of the seventh.
UP NEXT
The Salukis will look to avenge yesterday's loss to Murray State on Wednesday at Charlotte West Stadium. SIU will host the Racers at 3 p.m. for a single game.
