MACOMB, Ill.—South Dakota senior center fielder Katie Dinning hit a home run with two outs in the top of the seventh inning to break a 3-3 tie in game two and help the Coyotes complete a doubleheader sweep of Western Illinois Saturday at McKee Stadium. Scores went 7-4 and 4-3.
South Dakota (19-22-1, 10-3 Summit) won its seventh consecutive game in Summit League play and remains one loss behind conference leader North Dakota State in the standings. Game three in the series starts at 11 a.m. Sunday.
Yvon Minogue and Allie Day both drove in a pair of runs in the opener. South Dakota scored four runs in the third inning to take a 4-1 lead and added three more in the sixth to make it 7-2. Morgan Hancock was 3-for-4 in game one and crossed home twice for the Coyotes. Minogue was 2-for-4.
Madison Frain (10-9) pitched into the seventh inning to pick up her 10th win of the season. Rachel Cue got the final two outs to earn a save.
Daly gave the Coyotes a 3-2 lead in the fifth inning of game two with a two-out, two-run RBI double to center field that scored Dinning and Matley Jones. It was RBIs number 46 and 47 for Daly, who tied Jones for the team lead and second-most in the Summit.
Western Illinois (15-20, 5-9) scored an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth inning to tie the game at 3-3. Leatherneck pitcher Kayla Kirkpatrick got two first-pitch outs in the top of the seventh before surrendering the home run to Dinning. Kirkpatrick went the distance for Western Illinois.
Cue, South Dakota's game two starter, gave up a leadoff double to Teagan Walsh in the bottom of the seventh. But Walsh never touched third and Cue got Kelsey Marlow to fly out to right field with two on and two out to end the game.
Cue (8-12) allowed five hits and struck out five while walking four. All three runs scored by Western Illinois in game two were unearned.
