By: Late heroics from Courtney Kwasnitza to force the game into extra innings were negated by Ripon’s winning run in the eighth.
Box Score JANESVILLE, Wis. – The Illinois College softball team ended the weekend on a disappointing note with a 5-4 extra-inning loss to Ripon College on Sunday morning. The Lady Blues closed the MWC Classic at 1-4 with three of those losses coming by a single run and slipped to 9-14 (3-6 MWC) overall.
Strong winds yet again gusted through the park, making life difficult for defenses all day. Ripon was able to take advantage of that by putting two runners on in the first inning and then getting the benefit of the doubt on a ball that landed in the vicinity of the left field foul line. The ball was ruled fair and both runners scored to put the Red Hawks ahead 2-0. Later in the inning, a sacrifice fly would give Ripon a three-run edge after the first.
Illinois College had little to show offensively against Ripon starting pitcher Ashley Gnacinski until the fifth inning. Still trailing, 3-0, heading into that frame, the Lady Blues got their rally started with a one-out walk by
Betsy Wagers and an infield single from
Hannah Knapper. With two aboard, pinch hitter
Samantha Hereley singled over the head of the third baseman to load the bags up for
Courtney Kwasnitza. A hard-hit ball to right field that would have made for a difficult play on a normal day was made impossible by the winds and Kwasnitza ended on second base, bringing all three runners around to score and knotting the game up at 3-3.
The momentum seemed to be in IC's favor, especially after a rally-killing double play by the Lady Blues in the bottom of the fifth that eliminated two runners who had been in scoring position. But the pendulum swung again in the bottom of the sixth. A one-out error from the Lady Blues was compounded by a line drive triple to the right field wall to put Ripon ahead, 4-3, going into the seventh inning.
After Gnacinski got Knapper and Hereley to start the inning, the Red Hawks were just one out away from the win until Kwasnitza launched a solo home run to right field with IC's last gasp to tie the contest at 4-4.
Amanda Price then stranded a Ripon runner on first to bring the seventh inning to a close and send the game into extras.
Sierra McDonald and
Kinzie Verhines each reached base in the eighth inning for IC and
DJ Troli represented the go-ahead run for the Lady Blues after pinch-running for McDonald. With one down,
Emily Hawkins ripped a ball into left. Unfortunately, as was the case throughout much of the game, left field was where fly balls went to die. The wind knocked the steam out of the line drive to get the second out and Gnacinski recorded a strikeout to end the threat.
Ripon then pushed the winning run across in the bottom half of the frame. With runners on second and third and one out, a fly ball to Verhines in center field was only deep enough for the lead runner to fake a break towards home. Verhines made the grab for the second out and threw home to Kwasnitza. With the runner taking her time getting back to the bag, Kwasnitza tried to throw down to Knapper to try to steal a third out, but her throw sailed high into the outfield and Ashley Parkkonen advanced home to walk off with the victory.
It was a tough way to end the day for Kwasnitza, who had carried the offensive load for IC in the game, batting 3-for-4 with three runs driven in. Price took the loss despite allowing just one earned run in the game, falling to 6-5 for the year.
Illinois College returns home on April 16 to play a non-conference doubleheader against Millikin University. Action at Kamp Softball Field will get started at 3 p.m.
