DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake Bulldogs softball team dropped its regular season finale to the Illinois State Redbirds, 7-1, Sunday afternoon at Ron Buel Field.
Drake (32-20, 19-8 MVC), who clinched the MVC regular season title with Saturday's doubleheader sweep of Illinois State (23-30, 14-12 MVC), was done in Sunday by a five-run fourth inning by the Redbirds. Illinois State later added two additional runs on a home run by Annie Heineman in the sixth.
Senior Sarah Ryan (Mount Vernon, Iowa) drove in Drake's only run in the bottom of the fourth inning on a RBI double that scored pinch runner sophomore Maddie Hooyman (Trenton, Mo.).
Senior pitcher Rebekah Schmidt (Cottage Grove, Minn.) was rolling until the big fourth inning, as she hadn't allowed a hit to that point. Illinois State though knocked her out of the game as she allowed five runs on six hits in 3.1 innings of work to take the loss and drop to 19-14.
Freshman Nicole Newman (Madison, Wis.) relieved Schmidt and allowed just the two-run home run in 3.2 innings, but she did strike out seven.
Schmidt went 2-for-3 at the plate with a double while sophomore Megan Sowa (Gurnee, Ill.) added two hits of her own. Freshman Kelsey Wright (Olathe, Kan.) also had a double.
Prior to the game Drake honored its four seniors: Laura Brewer (Waukee, Iowa), Hayley Nybo (Minnetonka, Minn.), Ryan and Schmidt.
Drake is the No. 1 seed at next week's MVC Championship in Wichita, Kan. The Bulldogs received a double bye and won't play until Friday, May 8 at 12:04 p.m. against the winner of Thursday's No. 5/No. 8 vs. No. 4 game.
