TEMPE, Ariz. (2/16/2020) -- The Titans brought the bats early on against Illinois State, smashing three home runs, but they came up short in the final two games of Arizona State's Littlewood Classic on Sunday.
Detroit Mercy was downed 11-5 by Illinois State before falling to No. 10 Kentucky, 15-3.
Six Titans registered hits against ISU with junior
Ellie Boteler going 2-for-4 with a home run. Also going deep was sophomore
Taryn Peru and freshman
Reese Ruhlman, while sophomore
McKenna Tanguay and freshman
Jordan Hazel each had a hit and a RBI.
Peru also hit a three-run homer and Boteler plated a hit against Kentucky.
Senior
Liz Murphy struck out six batters in the start against ISU, while junior
Regan Glenn had a punchout in her start versus the Wildcats.
The Titans will be back in action next weekend in Louisiana for the Mardi Gras Mambo from Feb. 21-23 with games against Abilene Christian, Northwestern State, Houston Baptists, McNeese State and Nicholls State.
Illinois State 11, Detroit Mercy 5
The game started with Murphy striking out the side in the first before the Titans came up with two runs in the bottom of the frame.
Ruhlman homered to left with one out and then Peru powered one over the center-field wall with two down.
Murphy had two more strikeouts in the second and in the bottom half of the inning, the red, white and blue scored three more times. Boteler started the offense with a leadoff home run. Sophomore
Liz Paver then worked a walk and after a bunt moved her to second, she scored on an ISU error for a 4-0 advantage. With a runner on second and one down, Tanguay singled to right, and the Titans went up 5-0.
The Cardinals started to comeback with two runs in the third and eight in the fifth to jump out ahead.
The Titans had a chance to score in the fifth with runners on first and second and one out, but could not push across any more runs.
#10 Kentucky 15, Detroit Mercy 3
The 10th-ranked Kentucky Wildcats scored three runs in the first and nine in the second to take the lead.
The Titans did not quit as Paver led off the third with a single and advanced to third on two wild pitches. After Ruhlman worked a walk, Peru stepped to the plate and sent a 1-1 pitch over the left-field wall for her second homer of the day and third in three games.
