BATON ROUGE, La. – Southern Illinois took down Pac 12 Cal in the first round of the NCAA Regional on Friday, 5-4, to win its first NCAA postseason game since beating Detroit Mercy in 2019.
The win marked the 100th of Head Coach Jen Sewell‘s career as it was her first NCAA Tournmaent win during her first three years at the helm for Southern Illinois.
The Salukis (43-9) scored all five of their runs in the second inning and Maddia Groff pitched a complete game for her 30th win of the season. Bailey Caylor scored the first run of the day on a wild pitch before a pair of RBI-walks from Elizabeth Warwick and Jackie Lis. In the very next two at-bats Sidney Jones and Rylie Hamilton sent out deep fly balls that were both caught but deep enough to bring a runner across each time.
In the pivotal second inning, the first two runners reached base, as Bailey Caylor led off with a single and Anna Carder was hit by a pitch. The next four batters walked, bringing in three runs. Rylie Hamilton and Sydney Jones followed with sacrifice flies to give Southern a 5-0 advantage.
The Bears (36-19) answered with three runs in the bottom of the second and a single run in sixth, but Groff slammed the door in the seventh, striking out slugger Tianna Bell with a runner on first to end the game.
Maddia went all seven innings, giving up four runs with four strikeouts as she becomes the first Saluki to total 30 wins in a season.
SIU played flawless defense, including a spectacular leaping grab of a line drive by Jones at first base to prevent a run from scoring in the third, and a pair of diving grabs by catcher Rylinn Groff. Jones leaped for a line drive that looked like it was out of reach off the bat but the first basmen was able to make the grab and get the runner at second after she left for third, thinking it would get into right field.
In a four-team, double-elimination tournament, Southern will play at noon on Saturday versus the host LSU. The Salukis and Tigers have just met once before with SIU winning 8-5 back in 2007 over then ranked No. 5 LSU.
Hear From Head Coach Jen Sewell
“Just so proud of our defensive effort today. That game embodied Saluki Softball. Our offense was patient and built an early lead for Maddia Groff to go to work. Both teams battled to adjust to each other but our defense stuck it today. It was such a big win for our program but we have more in mind. We want to be the toughest team here and that showed up today in all facets of the game. Can’t wait to take the field with this club tomorrow.”
