TULSA, Okla. ? Western Illinois fell short of an upset victory over No. 20 Tulsa on Tuesday (March 11) dropping a 7-6 decision. The Leathernecks are now 11-7 on the year.

“That's the one thing we can rely on; we have a great hitting ball club,” said head coach Holly Van Vlymen. “Yesterday we talked about how we needed to come through in situations with runners on and today we did a good job of that. When they came back and tied it up we tightened up. We still put the ball in play and hit the ball hard we were just trying too hard. We needed to take the same approach we did in the first couple of innings. This is a Tulsa team with a great pitching staff and it's very promising for us.”

The Golden Hurricane took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second, on a home run and three more hits. The Fighting Leathernecks fought back, scoring four times in the top half of the third.

Western loaded the bases and began cutting into the lead on a Briana Williams single. After a wild pitch plated another run, Teagan Walsh hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game, scoring Sammy Marshall. Williams then scored the fourth run on another wild pitch to give Western a 4-3 advantage.

Western increased its lead to 6-3 in the fifth after Marshall and Williams both singled and stole second, Walsh scored both on a double to left center. Williams now has 65 career stolen bases, tying Julie DePolo for third all-time in Western Illinois history.

The Golden Hurricane came back with a three run fifth, tying the game at 6, chasing Hart from the game before winning the game with a walk-off single in the bottom of the 7th off of relief pitcher Teagan Walsh.

“I think they had the same approach until they tied it up,” Van Vlymen said. ”Tulsa is a great hitting team as well and once they tied it up we just tightened up a bit.”

The six runs scored by the Leathernecks are the most runs allowed in a single game by Tulsa pitchers this season. Williams, Karissa Kouchis and Megg Kelly all collected two hits.

Western Illinois travels to Wichita State for a doubleheader against the Shockers on Wednesday (March 12). Game one of the two-game set is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.