Horizon League Softball Championship Game Six: Wright State 4, Loyola 3

May 9, 2008

CHICAGO - Wright State University rallied to defeat Loyola University Chicago 4-3 in game six of the Horizon League Championship at Loyola Softball Park. The Raiders will play in game nine at 1:00 p.m. and face the University of Illinois at Chicago. The Rambers head into the loser's bracket and will meet the winner of the Butler University-Youngstown State University pairing in game 10 at 4:00 p.m. on Friday.

Sophomore right-hander Sharon Palma earned the victory and improved to 15-9 on the year. In 7.0 innings, Palma scattered eight hits and struck out six. Loyola sophomore Amy Solava took the loss and fell to 13-14 on the year. Solava limited the Raiders to just one hit for the first six innings of the contest and struck out eight in the defeat.

The Raiders, which were the League's top offensive team during the regular season, managed just one hit and three baserunners in the first six frames of play, but in the seventh Wright State pounded out three hits and scored four runs to earn the victory.

Prior to its tournament matchup with Loyola, WSU was 0-18 when trailing after six innings and 1-15 when being out-hit by its opponent. Against the Ramblers, Wright State trailed 3-0 after six innings and was out-hit by LU 8-4.

Loyola jumped out to an early 3-0 lead against Wright State, taking advantage of two infield hits and two Raider errors in the first inning. Sophomore Angie Funston collected the Ramblers only RBI of the inning. Funston leads the Ramblers with 33 RBIs on the year.

Both teams would go scoreless until the seventh. Wright State, which collected a League-best 492 hits as a team in 2008, did not post its first hit until the fourth inning.

In the seventh inning the Raider bats finally came alive. Williams led off by chopping a pitch off the plate towards third for an infield single and after sophomore Kristen Bradshaw reached on an error, freshman Justine Shilt walked to load the bases. Allison Cox would later and drill a ball past Funston at third to score Williams and Bradshaw to draw the Raiders to within one run at 3-2.

Pinch-runners Michelle Logan and Malerie Klingler each advanced a base on a wild pitch and following a walk to Mollie Berry to reload the bases.

Sophomore Briauna Birl then collected the game-winning single as she shot the ball up the middle to score both Logan and Klingler.

For complete coverage of the 2008 Horizon League Softball Championship check out the tournament homepage at www.horizonleague.org.