By: IC’s early-season trend continued as the Lady Blues won the first game and lost the second game for the third time in 2015.
Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 KISSIMMEE, Fla. – The Illinois College softball team moved to 3-3 on the season with a 3-2 victory over Albion College and a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Mount St. Joseph University on Wednesday. It was the third straight time this season that the Lady Blues have won their opener of a doubleheader but failed to complete the sweep.
Illinois College is back in action tomorrow for a single game, taking on Defiance College at 10 a.m. in Winter Haven, Fla.
Illinois College 3, Albion 2The opener on Wednesday had the makings of a low-scoring pitcher's duel in the early going, but both offenses got it going late in the contest. Through three innings, Albion's Monica Brugnoni and Illinois College's
Leah Shumaker had allowed a combined three hits. That changed suddenly in the fourth inning as a pair of Albion walks led to a RBI single from Kaitlyn Hotchkin to break the scoreless tie.
The Britons tacked onto their lead in the fifth inning against Shumaker and reliever
Amanda Price. After a lead-off double, Price came into the game looking to keep the Lady Blues within a single run. But after a single from the first batter she faced, clean-up hitter Megan LaCavera hit a grounder to third that brought in Elena Luce for a 2-0 lead going into the bottom half of the fifth.
Illinois College was down but not out.
Hannah Knapper doubled to start the IC fifth inning and she advanced to third on a passed ball before
Courtney Kwasnitza reached on a walk. With runners on the corners and one away,
Lanie Thompson singled in a run, then advanced to second on the throw from the outfield. With Thompson and Kwasnitza each in scoring position,
Sierra McDonald doubled them home for a 3-2 lead.
Price would have two on with one out in the sixth inning, but she fielded her position and got the lead runner on a 1-5 putout for the second out of the inning before getting Luce swinging to end the threat. The Britons managed a two-out baserunner in the seventh until Price ended the game with a popout to Knapper at third for the win.
Mount St. Joseph 4, Illinois College 2Unlike in the first game, Illinois College would fall behind but could not make up the difference facing the Lions of Mount St. Joseph University. Two days after silencing Coe College, Thompson struggled in the first and gave up three runs on four hits before getting out of the inning.
Illinois College tried its best to rally its way back into the game. The Lady Blues put a run on the board in both the second and third innings to make it a 3-2 ballgame.
Paige Hughey earned a one-out walk in the second and moved all the way around the bases on a trio of wild pitches to score. The next inning, Thompson led off with a single, advanced on a McDonald single and then scored on a Hughey double.
The Lady Blues left the tying run on third base in both the fourth and fifth innings before Mount St. Joseph could add onto its lead in the bottom of the fifth. Thompson had two down and only one runner on, but the Lions managed to sandwich a walk with a pair of singles that brought in one to score, making it 4-2.
The Lady Blues would only have one baserunner in the final two innings against MSJ's Paige Kiesewetter, who gave up four hits in a complete game victory.
Thompson also threw a complete game for her second straight outing, allowing eight hits and striking out five in six innings. McDonald had two of IC's four hits in the game.
