In Short
Loyola split a doubleheader with Evansville to capture its first MVC win of the season. The game one victory came with nine runs scored, three of which were driven in by Katie Kasubke.
 
How It Happened
Loyola put up a three-spot its first time up to bat, beginning with a one-out infield single from Shannon McGee. Two batters later, Katie Kasubke tacked on two more with an opposite field single that brought home two – her 95^th and 96^th career RBIs.
 
The Aces got on the board during their first at-bats as well with an RBI-single, but the Ramblers answered immediately in the top of the second. Madison Ebeling swiped one of six Rambler stolen bases in game one to put herself in scoring position. Two batters later, Brooke Wilson brought her in on an RBI groundout for Loyola's fourth run of the contest.
 
Evansville looked poised to continue the scoring barrage next time up, but a runner leaving early on what would have been a Bailee Bostic double turned a first and third nobody out situation into a bases empty two out sequence. It proved key as the Purple Aces plated two in the third to cut the Rambler lead to 4-3.
 
After three innings of chipping away, the Purple Aces tied it at 4-4 in the fourth, but the score didn't stay even long. A five run, four hit fifth inning for the Ramblers blew it wide open and propelled the visitors to a 9-4 lead. A two-run double off the bat of Allyson Ivey was the first big hit that got the scoring started. Kasubke knocked in the pinch-running Jordyn Cordell the following at-bat, and Abbey Jacobsen got in on the fun with an RBI base-knock of her own. One more run for good measure off a fielding error capped off the Maroon and Gold scoring spree.
 
Meanwhile, Madison Veres shut down the Purple Aces upon her arrival to the circle, eating up 3.2 innings of zero earned run softball, all while tallying a career-best four strikeouts. After handing the ball off with two outs in the seventh, Sydney Ruggles took care of the 21^st out to put Loyola back in the win column.
 
The Ramblers ran into a complete game effort from Izzy Vetter in game two. The righty kept the team off the scoreboard for six innings and registered seven strikeouts by game's end.
 
The first real scoring opportunity for LUC came when Jessica Shields doubled herself into scoring position with just one out in the top of the sixth. A fielder's choice advanced her to third, but Loyola came up empty. The missed opportunity proved costly, as the Purple Aces tacked on two more runs in their half of the sixth.
 
Down 5-0 with three more outs to work with, Loyola made the most of them by staging a furious rally. The visitors loaded the bases with nobody out to kick-start the rally, and got on the board with a Caitlin Engelking hit-by-pitch that scored Kasubke. Loyola continued its station-to-station production with two more runs on a sac-fly and walk, but UE got the final out before Loyola could plate five. Evansville won game two, 5-3.
 
A Look at the Numbers
-Jessica Shields picked up four more stolen bases in the doubleheader to run her total to 28 on the season. As it stands today it's the third most in a single season in program history.
-Shields is now on a 10-game hitting streak, the second double-digit game hitting streak by a Rambler this season.
-The 10 hits in game one marks the 10^th time this season Loyola has tallied double-digits in a game.
-Katie Kasubke knocked in three runs in game one to give her an even 20 RBI on the season.
 
 
Up Next
The Ramblers and Aces play the final game of the series tomorrow (March 24) at 11 a.m. before Loyola returns to Chicago to play its next five games, and 10 of the next 11.