Indiana Falls in Day One of Samford Invitational

Friday, February 23

Birmingham, Ala.

2:00 PM ET

Indiana University

1-9

Lipscomb

6-2

Indiana

Lipscomb

Indiana Falls in Day One of Samford Invitational

2/23/2018 6:57:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Box Score (PDF) - Lipcomb Box Score (PDF) - Samford

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Indiana Softball dropped both games of its opening day of play in the Samford Invitational, falling to Lipscomb, 2-0, and Samford, 6-1.

Lipscomb 2, Indiana 0
The Hoosiers out-hit the Lady Bisons, 3-2, but walks and errors proved costly as Indiana fell to Lipscomb, 2-0.

Lipscomb threatened early as a pair of walks and a hit batter loaded the bases with two outs in the opening inning. But a deep fly ball to left field was brought in by freshman Mykayla Ferrari to get the Hoosiers out of danger.

Freshman Maddie Westmoreland earned the first Indiana hit of the day in the second as she sent a one-out double to left. However, she was stranded there on a groundout and pop-up. Westmoreland reached base three times in the game, also drawing a walk and hit-by-pitch.

The Lady Bisons got on the board in the home half of the second, taking advantage of some Hoosier miscues. After Peyton Ward reached on a one-out walk, she stole second base. Destinee Brewer then got on board via a Hoosier fielding error. As the IU defense looked to clean up the play, an overthrow allowed Ward to get all the way home. After a single and walk loaded the bases, sophomore Emily Goodin came in to relieve junior Tara Trainer. A wild pitch plated a second Lipscomb run before Goodin picked up two strikeouts to limit the damage.

Goodin turned in a perfect frame in the third and went on to retire seven of the first eight she faced. Her 10 strikeouts in 3.2 innings of work tied a career high set March 10, 2017.

Unfortunately, the Indiana bats couldn't get going as the Hoosiers stranded four in the game.

Samford 6, Indiana 1
In the second game of the day, the Hoosiers couldn't recover from an early deficit as they dropped a 6-1 decision to tournament host Samford.

Senior Rebecca Blitz and Ferrari each collected a pair of hits in the game as the Hoosiers matched the Bulldogs in base knocks, 7-7. But again a few errors ended up costing Indiana in the loss.

"The toughest thing right now is we're taking two opponents every time we take the field – we're playing ourselves and we're playing our opponent," said head coach Shonda Stanton. "We have to do a better job coming out early and taking care of the ball. Anytime you extend the inning and give free outs and free at-bats, any team that you play on your schedule is going to make you pay. That's what we saw today, we didn't do enough defensively to take care of the ball. In this game, you have to have two out of the three between pitching, hitting and defense."

Samford jumped ahead in the second as a double steal from the runners at first and third led to Whitney Hinton taking home. A second Bulldog run scored two batters later as Madison Couch reached on an errant throw that pushed Lexie Higgins home to make it 2-0.

A big fourth inning extend the Bulldogs lead to 6-0 thanks to a pair of two-run singles. After a hit, error and walk loaded the bases, Kelsey Royalty pushed a two-run single to left, plating Higgins and Kathryn Jackson. Hannah Trombley followed that up with a single to right, bringing home Royalty and Couch.

Indiana put together one of its strongest offensive innings in the fifth, loading the bases with two outs on singles from Ferrari and Blitz, as well as a walk to Jenkins. However, Samford third baseman Higgins made an impressive stop on a hard-hit grounder from Uden to tag the base and end the inning.

The Hoosiers got on the board in the final frame as single by Galovich, O'Malley and Ferrari loaded the bases for Blitz, who sent one up the middle to plate O'Malley. However, a flyout stopped the rally and ended the game.

"What we need to see tomorrow is us sticking to a game plan and making in-game adjustments as needed," said Stanton.

Indiana wraps up play in the Samford Invitational on Saturday as the Hoosiers will get another chance at both teams. First pitch of the day will be against Lipscomb at 2:30 p.m. ET.