Box Score
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Evansville softball team defeated Missouri Valley Conference rival Southern Illinois in the mid-week series finale at Cooper Stadium on Tuesday night, 4-2.
 
The Purple Aces were able to stop their recent conference losing streak, by getting the win against the Salukis and Coach Mark Redburn was glad to get back on track.
 
"I was really happy with our players and the way they bounced back to salvage the series, especially with the way things happened there (Carbondale) last week. Megan Gurski had a great start in the circle for us and was able to hit a huge homerun to right field that started the scoring for us. Chandra Parr went yard once again and led us to the big win and our defense was solid for us today as well. Our girls didn't panic when they managed to score a couple of runs and overall it was a good way to get a solid conference win."
 
As coach Redburn stated above, Gurski started the game in the circle for the UE squad and she limited the visiting Salukis to only one hit in the top of the first and no runs.
 
The game did not stay scoreless for long, as the Aces got on the board in the bottom of the inning on a homerun by Gurski, as the pitcher looked to give herself some cushion heading into the second.
 
SIU was able to get a few runs on the board in the top of the second, as the Salukis scored on a wild pitch and an RBI ground out, taking the 2-1 lead.
 
Neither team would score in the third inning and in the top of the fourth Evansville brought in Briana Combs (4-4) for Gurski and the freshman kept the visiting team scoreless.
 
Katie Bertelsen for SIU walked Gurski in the bottom of the fourth inning and Chandra Parr, who has hit six homers in her last 10 games, struck again. Parr hit a two run homerun that gave the Aces the 3-2 lead. Parr is now tied for fourth, with 10 homers, in the Evansville single season record book.
 
Combs kept the Salukis scoreless in the top of the fifth inning and that was the day for the freshman as she received the win. She finished with one walk, a strikeout and no hits or runs in 2.0 innings of work.
 
Michal Luckett added one more security run in the bottom of the fifth inning, as the shortstop hit an RBI single, her 13^th RBI of the year, before Gurski came in to close out the game for UE.
 
Gurski kept the visiting SIU team off scoreless in the sixth and seventh innings and the junior received a save. The Saskatchewan native threw 5.0 innings, allowing only two runs.
 
After a solid conference win over the Salukis, Evansville is set to travel to Edwardsville, Ill., to take on the SIUE Cougars in a mid-week matchup on Thursday.