Blaine Kinsey
GoSycamores.com
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa—Junior Shelby Wilson moved into the top 10 at Indiana State in career RBI's on Sunday but the Sycamore softball team (14-31, 3-16 MVC) fell in the finale of the three-game series at UNI (19-21, 9-6 MVC by a score of 8-1.
"We are building every day to improve and learning the energy and effort to play at a high level, " head coach Shane Bouman said. "We have a lot of Sycamore pride and a lot to gain in the next two weeks."
The Sycamores threatened in the top of the first inning when junior Morgan Allee walked and advanced to second on a sacrifice before getting to third on a fielders choice. The Sycamores could not plate a run, however, as a flyout ended the inning.
The Panthers responded in the bottom of the first when a leadoff walk came around to score to give UNI a 1-0 lead after one inning of play.
Northern Iowa added to their lead in the third scoring one run before plating four in the bottom of the fifth to make it a 6-0 game.
The Sycamores did not go down without a fight as Allee reached on an error with one out in the top of the sixth and stole second, her 33rd of the season, and advanced to third on an error by the Panthers catcher. Wilson then hit an RBI infield single to score Allee and cut the Panther lead to 6-1.
Wilson's RBI marked her 33rd of the season and 63rd of her career to move her to 10th on the ISU career record book.
The Panthers added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth before going on to defeat the Sycamores in the final game of the series, 8-1.
With her run scored, Allee moved into 5th place on the ISU single season runs scored list, just two runs scored away from first. Sophomore Ashley Dickerson also was hit by a pitch for the eighth time this season, which puts her second on the ISU single season list, just two away from first and fifth on the ISU career list.
The Sycamores will return to action Wednesday when the Sycamores travel to face the Bulldogs of Butler at 4 p.m. In Indianapolis.
