SEMO softball defeated the Southern Indiana (USI) Screaming Eagles 8-5 to start their three game series.

SEMO jumped out to a 6-0 lead through three innings of play and held on for the victory.

The win comes after a week long lay off for the Redhawks. Head Coach Mark Redburn said that he was impressed with how the Redhawks initially came out, but said there is room to improve after SEMO allowed four runs in the 7th inning.

“I was really happy with our energy and how we came out and started the game,” Redburn said. “But as a whole for our team, I just didn't feel like we finished them off like we should have.”

Ultimately USI’s comeback bid could not deal with the damage done previously by the Redhawk bats.

Senior infielder Alyson Tucker went 2-3 with 2 RBI’s, including an RBI double to put SEMO on the board in the first inning. The Redhawks also got home runs from both sophomore catcher Marissa Peek and junior catcher Kat Sackett who both finished 2-3.

Sackett said the focus for her was more on playing for her teammates.

“I was just trying to stay focused on playing for my teammates. I didn't even really think about it. I'm just trying to have fun,” Sackett said.

With this win over USI, SEMO is now 12-8 with a 5-1 record within the Ohio Valley Conference. Even with this win, Redburn said there is still room to grow.

“We're still not there yet. I think we're something like 12 games short on the season, and so we're still looking at trying to come along offensively,” Redburn said.

“We just need to give it to them all the entire seven innings. We kind of started it off really strong early, and I think we just need to finish out the game strong,” Peek said.