Box Score

MUNCIE, Ind. - The IUPUI softball team took a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the sixth inning at Ball State on Wednesday, but yielded a pair of runs in the bottom half to the Cardinals in a 5-4 defeat. The Jaguars got hits from seven different starters but allowed the hosts to rattle off nine hits on the day.

Ball State won an earlier meeting between the two schools, 15-3 on Feb. 22 at the Georgia Softball Classic in Athens, Ga..

IUPUI (3-26) scored twice in the top of the sixth inning to take a 4-3 lead heading into the bottom half. Senior Cassie Harvey drilled a one-out double before being lifted for pinch-runner Amanda Mackey at second base. Mackey immediately moved to third on a passed ball and tied the game when she scored on Leah Prewitt's single.

Prewitt came out in favor of pinch-runner Kristine Grohnke, who moved to second on an Alicia Hayes sacrifice bunt. Junior Laura Wilcox made the strategy work by singling inside the rightfield foul line, scoring Grohnke from second.

However, Ball State (10-13) responded with a pair of unearned runs in the bottom half to retake the lead against Amy Raker (1-10). Given an extra out, Kristy Stratton drilled a two-out two-run double to give the Cards the lead heading into the top of the seventh.

BSU's Elizabeth Milian, working in relief of Laura Masch, set the Jaguars down in order in the seventh to improved to 8-8 on the season. Masch struck out five in 5.1 innings work while Milian fanned one and allowed one hit while retiring five batters.

IUPUI's first offense of the day came in the third when Hayes launched her first homer of the season to lead off the inning. In the fourth, Raker blasted her third tater of the year to give IUPUI a 2-1 lead.

Head Coach Maggie Calcaterrra's team returns to Summit League play this weekend when it heads back up Interstate-69 to take on IPFW on Friday. That doubleheader is slated to begin at 4:00 p.m.