Box Score

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – It took 12 innings, but the Eastern Kentucky softball team ended its 2011 season with a victory at Southeast Missouri on Sunday. A 9-2 victory in game three allowed EKU to take the season-ending series two games to one.

After battling to a 1-1 tie through 10 innings, both teams platted a run in the 11th to send the game to the 12th inning. The Colonels (24-27, 11-18 OVC) exploded for seven runs to put the game away.

Starting in the 10th inning, the teams started each inning with a runner on second base. Raquel Howes led off the 12th with a two-run home run. The home run was her 13th of the season, which broke Kelly Swanson’s school record of 12 set in 1998. Howes finished the game with three RBIs giving her 48 for the season, two short of another school record.

Howes’ dinger began a streak of eight straight Colonels to reach base. A double by Shyenne Hussey was followed by three straight singles which platted one more run for a 5-2 lead. Nicole Heitz then drew a bases loaded walk for a 6-2 advantage. Two more consecutive singles pushed across one run each before a fielder’s choice provided the first out of the inning. Howes drew a bases loaded walk in her second at bat of the inning to complete the seven-run 12th.

The Redhawks (27-28, 17-12 OVC) were retired in order in the bottom half of the inning.

Hussey’s RBI single in the top of the seventh tied the score at 1-1 and sent the game into extra innings.

Kristin Perry (10-10) came on in relief in the fifth and pitched the final seven and two-thirds innings. She allowed one unearned run, walked three and struck out three.

Eight of the nine Colonel starters recorded at least one hit. Howes finished 2-for-5 and scored twice to go along with her three RBIs. Hussey went 2-for-6 with a run and an RBI. Larkyn Wood was 2-for-5 with a run and an RBI. Diane Gallagher had two hits in five at bats, drove in a pair of runners and swiped her 29th base of the season.