INDIANAPOLIS – Continuing action during the short fall season, the IUPUI Softball Team (2-2) improved dramatically from their performance last weekend, locking up a pair of wins against crosstown University of Indianapolis Saturday (Sep. 24), winning with scores of 4-2 and 9-1.  Game one went to 11 innings, while game two ended in five.
 
Head Coach Heather Tarter sent out Nickole Finch to the circle to start the action in game one, as the third-year leftie tossed five innings of work in another strong outing.  Erica Tharp would come on in relief, throwing six shutout frames to pick up the win. 
 
The Greyhounds would strike for a pair of runs on a costly error in the third inning with two outs, dropping the Jaguars to an early deficit.
 
Needing late inning heroics, IUPUI tallied its first run in the fifth-inning on an RBI single up the middle by Mckenzie Loge that plated Alyssa Matson.  After going silent in the sixth, the Jags received a huge boost from three-time All-Summit League player Roni Patterson, who swatted an opposite-field solo homerun in the top of the seventh inning that just snuck over the right field wall.  The big fly tied the game at 2-2, and would force the teams to play into extra innings.
 
The deadlock remained intact until the 11th-inning, when IUPUI cashed in on early opportunities.  Maggie Good was hit by a pitch to start the inning, giving the Jags an early baserunner.  Good would go first-to-third on a single by Patterson, who also advanced into scoring position by moving to second base on the throw.  Delaney Thompson delivered a run-scoring double to left that broke the tie and kept IUPUI with a pair of runners in scoring position.  Patterson would come home to score on a wild pitch, as the Jags would close out the game after a lengthy day in the sun, 4-2.
 
In total, the Jags accumulated 14 hits in the contest, to just six for UIndy. 
 
Committed to play two, the Jaguars jumped out very early on the Greyhounds in the second game, as IUPUI took a 3-0 lead in the first inning before ever recording an out.  Adison Lorsung torched a three-run towering homerun that flew well over the left-center field fence, igniting what would become an offensive outburst for the Jags. 
 
Thompson came through with a big hit once again, also logging a three-run homer in the game to reinforce another stellar pitching performance.  Finch tossed another three innings of scoreless ball, Tharp threw two innings, surrendering just a solo big fly, and IUPUI routed its opposition in a five-inning, abbreviated ball game.
 
The Jags will have a two-week break before closing out their fall season in a pair of games scheduled for Oct. 8 against Butler (11 a.m. EST) and the University of Saint Francis (3 p.m.).    
 
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