Grinnell Takes Advantage of Errors to Sweep Softball

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – Up early to try to fit two games in before the expected rains became too heavy, the Illinois College softball team never quite got its defense rolling. The Lady Blues committed a combined six errors on Sunday, giving Grinnell College extra outs to work with. The Pioneers were all too happy to accept the charity and walked away with 5-4 and 6-1 wins over IC. The Lady Blues drop to 11-18 (4-9 Midwest Conference) with the two defeats.

Illinois College goes on the road on Wednesday for its final two non-conference matchups of the season. The Lady Blues will meet Iowa Wesleyan College in a doubleheader beginning at 4:30 p.m. in Mount Pleasant.

Game One: Grinnell 5, Illinois College 4
Poorly-timed lapses on defense made life hard for pitchers Amanda Price and Leah Shumaker in the first game of the day. Of Grinnell's five runs, only one was earned, but the Pioneers did enough damage to steal a win despite being outhit, 14-7, by the Lady Blues.

Illinois College jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom half of the first inning on a RBI single from Sierra McDonald to score Courtney Kwasnitza after the IC catcher had led off the inning with a single and stolen base. After Price put Grinnell down in order in the second inning, IC doubled its lead to 2-0 on a RBI single from Kwasnitza into right field that plated Paige Hughey.

Things took a turn in the top of the third inning. Grinnell put its first two hitters aboard on bunt singles, and an error from Price on a third straight bunt allowed the lead runner to come around to score. Still with no outs, the Pioneers bunted again and the Lady Blues were able to record their first out of the inning, but the tying run came in on the play to knot the score up at 2-2. Following a single to put runners on the corners, Grinnell got the go-ahead run across on a sacrifice fly. With two down, IC's second error of the frame kept the inning alive for another single up the middle to score a run and give the Pioneers a 4-2 advantage.

Looking to mount a comeback, Illinois College left the bases loaded in the bottom of third and then went down in order in the fourth. The Lady Blues did slice the deficit in half in the fifth inning by pushing one run across to make it a 4-3 contest. McDonald led off with a double before making way for pinch-runner Mickalah York. York moved to third with one away on an Elyce Trout infield single and Emily Hawkins drove her in with a well-placed bunt down the first base line.

In the sixth inning, Grinnell went with what had worked earlier in the game, bunting repeatedly and scoring a run off of an Illinois College error. The Pioneers didn't get a hit in the inning, but a lead-off walk provided all that Grinnell needed to put its gameplan into effect.

Down by a pair of runs, the Lady Blues trimmed it back to one again in the bottom half of the inning. Samantha Hereley started the inning with a pinch-hit single and Kwasnitza drove her in on a double, though the catcher was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple. IC's last gasp came in the bottom of the seventh. Trout singled and DJ Troli entered as a pinch-runner, eventually reaching third base with one out. On a grounder off the bat of Lanie Thompson, Grinnell's third baseman threw home in the nick of time to get Troli before she touched home plate for the tying run. Though Halpin would reach scoring position with two down, IC couldn't get the final hit it needed to tie things up.

Price suffered the loss for the Lady Blues, falling to 7-6 despite giving up just one earned run. Shumaker pitched 4.1 innings of relief and her lone run given up was also unearned. At the plate, McDonald ended 4-for-4 with one run batted in, while Kwasnitza and Trout were each 3-for-4.

Game Two: Grinnell 6, Illinois College 1
With rain becoming a persistent factor, Grinnell was able to manufacture timely hits, while Illinois College left eight runners aboard as the Pioneers completed their two-game sweep.

Grinnell took the lead early on, but only for a brief time. A two-out walk in the bottom of the first turned into a problem as clean-up hitter Kayla Morrissey doubled Sage Juveland home to make it a 1-0 lead for the Pioneers. IC responded back in the bottom of the inning with a McDonald single and walk to Thompson. With two outs, Brittany Fanella singled home McDonald to tie things up at 1-1.

The score remained there until the fourth when Grinnell managed to get two runs home for a 3-1 lead. A sac fly and two-out double did the damage before Thompson could escape the inning.

Despite four walks, Grinnell starter Maggie Remus otherwise limited the Lady Blues throughout much of the game. Needing baserunners, only Hereley ended up aboard in the fourth inning with a two-out single. Illinois College then went down in order in the fifth, setting up Grinnell's game-sealing sixth inning.

Having played error-free softball in the game up until the sixth, IC committed two errors with two outs in the inning, keeping things alive for Grinnell to score three times against Shumaker, on once again in a relief capacity. Down 6-1, things were mostly sealed at that point for the Pioneers, but the Lady Blues made it interesting by loading the bases in the sixth before leaving all three runners stranded. The weather became too much of a factor entering the seventh inning and the game was called, giving the Pioneers their fifth win of the season.

Thompson went 4.1 innings and gave up three runs in defeat, dropping to 4-6 on her freshman season. Hereley was the lone Lady Blues player with more than one hit in the game, going 2-for-2 at the plate.