MADEIRA BEACH, Fla.—South Dakota senior
Jamie Holscher hit a walk-off three-run home run in extra innings against Drexel to highlight day two of the Madeira Beach Invitational at R.O.C. Park. The Coyotes (7-2) extended their win streak to seven games – longest since 2015 and fourth-longest in program history – with an 11-8 victory before falling to Murray State 8-4 in the nightcap.
Holscher's winner was South Dakota's fifth home run of the game against the Dragons (0-3). The first four were solo shots including
Dustie Durham and
Jessica Rogers going back-to-back in the first inning, Rogers going deep again in the third, and
Lauren Wobken crushing a game-tying bomb in the sixth that helped force extra innings.
Freshman
Grace Garcia pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings of relief while making her collegiate debut to pick up the victory. She struck out the first batter she faced and allowed just one hit.
Alexis Devers started and extended her scoreless innings streak to 13 2/3 before giving up a two-run homer in the third inning. Devers allowed four runs in all and has a team-low 1.68 ERA in three starts.
Garcia kept the game tied at 8-8 in the eighth inning with a little help from fellow frosh
Courtney Wilson. After Garcia worked a popup for the first out of the frame, Wilson caught a fly ball in right for the second out and gunned down Dragon second baseman Mari Gardner at third before Gardner had a chance to slide. Gardner began the inning on second with the international tiebreaker.
Durham bunted
Alyssa Fernandez to third to begin the bottom of the eighth and Drexel intentionally walked Rogers to face Durham, who was 0-for-4 at the time. Durham drove the second pitch of the at bat over the wall in center and the celebration was on. It was her second home run of the season.
Fernandez was 2-for-5 with three RBIs in the opener and has five hits in four games in Florida. Rogers' homers were her first of the season after belting a Summit-leading 15 a year ago. Wobken and Durham have three home runs each thru nine games.
Murray State (3-6) used a six-run second inning to take a quick 7-0 lead on the Coyotes in the nightcap. Madison Culver's three-run homer capped it. Brenna Finck, who had four of the Racers' 13 hits, executed a perfect squeeze bunt in the frame and finished with two RBIs and two runs scored.
Holscher cut the deficit to 7-3 in the bottom of the sixth with another three-run shot, her 10
th career homer. She tacked on the final run in the seventh with an RBI groundout that scored Fernandez. Holscher has driven in 11 runs in four games in Florida and leads the Summit with 16 RBIs on the year.
Durham (3-2) took the loss in game two.
Gill Woodward made her 2019 debut and allowed one run in 2 2/3 innings of work with a K. Garcia added two more scoreless innings.
Sarah Lisko worked the seventh.
South Dakota wraps up its first weekend in Florida with a 9 a.m. (ET) contest against Central Arkansas (5-4) Sunday.
