PEORIA, Ill. – Senior Madeline Lynch-Crumrine (Sedro-Woolley, Wash./Sedro-Woolley) limited Southern Illinois to just three hits in a 5-1 Bradley victory in the opener and Southern Illinois ended a seventh-inning rally attempt by the Braves by throwing out the tying run at the plate as the Salukis held on for a 7-6 win in the nightcap Saturday afternoon at Laura Bradley Park.

Lynch-Crumrine gave up just two runs in 10.1 innings of work and went a combined 3-for-6 at the plate in the doubleheader split Saturday. 

Bradley (18-22 overall, 9-5 MVC) jumped out to an early lead in the opener when senior Marina Groenewegen (Surrey, British Columbia/Elgin Park Secondary/Southern Idaho) ripped a two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the first to give the Braves a 2-0 lead.

Southern Illinois (18-19 overall, 6-7 MVC) got a run in the top of the second before Lynch-Crumrine got out of a jam.  A one-out bases loaded walk pushed in the only Saluki run of the game, before Lynch-Crumrine settled down to strike out the next batter she faced and a got groundout to end the inning as SIU left the bases loaded.

The Braves added a run in the bottom of the second when SIU committed an error on a sacrifice bunt and Bradley pushed the led to 4-1 with a run in the third after loading the bases on a pair of singles and hit batter to open the frame.  Senior Alex Chandler (Needles, Calif./Needles) drove in the run in the third with a sacrifice fly to left to plate Groenewegen with her second run of the contest.

Lynch-Crumrine pitched around a walk to open the Southern Illinois half of the fourth and Bradley added an insurance run in the bottom half of the inning.  A walk and back-to-back bunt singles loaded the bases for Groenwegen, who drove in her third run of the game when she was hit by a pitch as the Braves took a 5-1 lead into the fifth.

A leadoff double in the top of the sixth was the only SIU hit in the final five innings after the Salukis had loaded the bases in the second as Lynch-Crumrine struck out five and walked six in the complete game effort to improve to 12-10 on the season with the 5-1 Bradley victory.

Both starting pitchers struggled early in the second game and neither starter made it out of the third inning of the nightcap.  The Braves struck for three runs on just two hits in the bottom of the first to take an early 3-0 lead.  Junior Alyson Clemente (Murrieta, Calif./Murrieta Valley) scored from third on a wild pitch for the first run of the game and junior Shannon King (San Jose, Calif./Archbishop Mitty) drove in another run with a single to right.  A SIU error on the King single allowed another run to cross.

The Salukis trimmed the BU advantage to 3-1 with a run in the top of the second on a RBI single by Merri Anne Patterson.  SIU went in front 5-3 with a four-run third, which included a double, two singles, a walk, and a hit batter.

The top half of the fourth featured three illegal pitches, a wild pitch, a walk, hit batter and two Saluki singles as SIU pushed the lead to 6-3 with a run in the frame and Meredith Wilson added what proved to be a very important insurance run for Southern Illinois in the top of the sixth with a solo homer to give her squad a 7-3 advantage.

Lynch-Crumrine led off the bottom of the sixth with a single and the Braves eventually loaded the bases with two more hits in the inning.  Joseph drove in a run when she reached on a fielder's choice with the bases loaded to plate Lynch-Crumrine as junior Brittany Burgess (Utica, Ill./St. Bede) avoided the tag going to second on the groundball hit to SIU second baseman Jayna Spivey.

Trailing 7-4 going into the seventh, Bradley mounted a late rally attempt and had the winning run on second base with only one out.  Clemente was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and Groenewegen followed with a single up the middle.  King loaded the bases with a one-out single to left field and Chandler ripped a two-run double to right center as the Braves pulled within a run at 7-6.  With the tying run at third and the winning run at second with only one out, sophomore Kendall Duffy (Naperville, Ill./Benet Academy) flew out down the right field line.  Patterson caught the ball on the run near the foul line and fired a strike to the plate to throw out King at home and end the game. 

Freshman Jaelen Hull (Clifton, Ill./Bishop McNamara) took the loss for Bradley in the circle, giving up four hits and five runs in two innings of work to drop to 4-11 on the season.  Katie Bertelsen suffered the loss in the opener, but picked up the save for SIU in the second game after getting Duffy to fly out.  Taylor Orsburn earned the win in the nightcap for the Salukis to up her record to 3-2 as she scattered seven hits and three earned runs over 5.2 innings of work out of the bullpen.

Bradley and Southern Illinois will close out the three-game series Sunday with a single game at 10 a.m. at Laura Bradley Park.