Box Score - Providence

Feb. 19, 2012

MIAMI - The UIC softball team (4-5/0-0 Horizon League) scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to tie Providence (1-4), 5-5 and evened out the score yet again in the seventh (7-7) to send the game into extra innings. The Friars outlasted the Flames, 9-8 with the international tie-breaking rule in the eighth inning Sunday in the final day of the Blue & Gold Felsburg Memorial tournament at the FIU Softball Complex in Miami, Fla.

Sophomore Jacki Fletcher (Lowell, Ind./Lowell) led the Flames with five hits during her five at-bats of the contest, while also recording an RBI. Senior Ashley Hewett (La Palma, Calif., John F. Kennedy) and junior Melissa Preish (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Westlake) chipped in two hits on the day.

For the third time of the weekend, the Flames placed a run on the board in the first inning. Fletcher hit a double to left center field to score senior Melinda Macias (Chino, Calif./Don Antonio Lugo) and start the contest off with a 1-0 lead.

The Friars answered in the second and third innings as they score two and three runs, respectively, a lead the team managed to hold onto until the bottom of the sixth inning, when UIC knocked in four runs. The scoring spree was ignited with a base hit by freshman Erica Hampton (Wichita, Kan./Bishop Carroll), followed by junior Teresa Aguilar (Chicago, Ill./Loyola Academy) who reached base on a walk.

Sophomore Courtney Heeley (Glendale, Ariz./Greenway) knocked Hampton in with a double. Preish then topped the inning off with a homerun that scored Aguilar and Heeley to tie the Friars, 5-5.

Providence scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning to regain the lead, while UIC answered in the bottom half to tie the score at 7-7 to take the game into extra innings.

With the national tie-breaking rule, Providence scored two runs, while the UIC squad was able to score only one run to drop the game in a 9-8 decision.

The Flames return to action Friday at the aTen Construction Tournament in Riverside, Calif., where squad leads off against Idaho State at 11:00 a.m. (CT). Also, follow the team on Twitter (UICSoftball) for in-game updates.