PEORIA, Ill. – The Drake University softball team closed the 2021 regular season Sunday afternoon with an 11-2 victory at Bradley.
Drake (18-29, 12-14 MVC) secured the fifth seed for the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament May 12-15 in Evansville, Ind. The Bulldogs will play Thursday morning at 10 a.m. on ESPN+ against the winner of No. 8 Evansville or No. 9 Loyola, which will meet Wednesday at 11 a.m.
On Sunday, Drake scored the most runs in a league game, tied its second-most hits total in a game with 13 and avenged Saturday's doubleheader sweep by Bradley (19-21, 12-15 MVC). Five Bulldogs had two hits in the win while four finished with two or more runs batted in.
Drake's first run came courtesy of
Skylar Rigby's first-inning, RBI single that plated
Macy Johnson, who doubled to left center with one out. The Bulldogs added two more runs the next inning with
Emily Valtman's two-out, two-run single up the middle that scored
Libby Ryan and
Haylee Lehman. Drake's final three runs came via
Alexia Lara's pinch hit, bases clearing double in the sixth inning as
Laura Anderson,
Aubree Beitzinger and
MaKayla Rice all scored.
Nicole Timmons, who improved to 10-10 this season with the the victory in the circle, scattered seven hits and three walks to go with two strikeouts in six innings. Timmons allowed just one run in the third and escaped further trouble by getting out of a bases loaded jam with a flyout to end the inning. She worked around another bases loaded jam in the fourth, had a 123 fifth and in the sixth allowed a two-out home run before striking out the final Braves hitter to end the game early.
