By: The Lady Blues made one run stand up in the opener and the bats got hot in game two to sweep the Pioneers.
Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2
WAUKESHA, Wis. – The Illinois College softball team took two crucial games from Carroll University in a battle of squads who each have an eye on a berth in next month's Midwest Conference Tournament. The Lady Blues won the first game of the day, 1-0, on a run in the first inning. Later on, IC exploded for nine runs in a 9-4 victory that improved the team to 17-9 (9-5 MWC) for the season. With the two losses, Carroll dropped to 14-12 (5-5 MWC).
Illinois College will travel to Fontbonne University on Tuesday night for a doubleheader beginning at 5 p.m. before returning to MWC play next weekend with road trips to Grinnell and Cornell on April 23 and 24.
Game One: Illinois College 1, Carroll 0
In an all-out pitcher's duel between
Amanda Price and Shelby Sommer, Price and the Lady Blues made sure that the run that IC scored in the first inning kept the team out in front the entire way. Price struck out three in a complete game shutout and gave up just six hits to improve to 6-3 this season.
In the first trip to the plate for the Lady Blues,
Jackie Reilly singled with one out and
Katie Prizer doubled to put both runners in scoring position.
Elyce Trout then found a gap in the Carroll defense with a single and Reilly raced in to put IC ahead, 1-0.
Price grew more dominant as the game went along. After allowing runners in each of the first five innings, she retired the final seven batters she faced as the Pioneers went down without much of a fight. The best chance that Carroll had came in the bottom of the first, but after two hitters reached with one out, Price struck out Kelly Strasser and got Kelly Sykes to ground out Prizer at first.
The Pioneers wouldn't put another runner in scoring position until the fifth. With two down, Micah Clutter singled and went to second on a wild pitch. Price came up with the big pitch she needed though, getting Sommer to pop out to
Shelby Koehler at shortstop to end the threat. That was the first of the seven consecutive outs Price recorded to end the game.
Prizer was the top hitter in the IC lineup in the game, going 2-for-2.
Ryleigh Keith, Reilly, Trout and
Lea Hall had the other hits for the Lady Blues in the contest.
Game Two: Illinois College 9, Carroll 4
The second game didn't have much in common with the first, but it worked out just as well for Illinois College. This time around, three runs in the first inning put the Lady Blues comfortably ahead and a four-run sixth pushed the lead out to 9-1 before a Carroll rally that fizzled out with two runners aboard.
Trout had a big hit in the first inning for the second game in a row. After Reilly doubled and Prizer singled, a Trout double scored Reilly for an immediate 1-0 edge. With Prizer on third base, a Hall sacrifice fly brought a second run home and
Marissa Knowles plated the third run of the inning on a RBI single.
The lead remained 3-0 until the fourth inning.
Abby Campbell continued her power surge in her senior season with a lead-off solo shot off of reliever Caitlyn Adams to up the margin to 4-0. The Pioneers answered back with their first run of the day on a single by Veronica Rodriguez to make it 4-1, but
Mariah Hedges ended the inning by fielding a grounder right back to her in the circle and throwing over to Prizer to bring the Lady Blues back up to the plate.
In the fifth inning, Hall became the second straight IC hitter to lead off an inning with a solo home run. Following a 1-2-3 inning from Hedges in the bottom of the fifth, the Lady Blues tacked on four more runs to make it 9-1. Koehler, Reilly, Prizer, Trout and Hall had five straight hits to start the inning and
Kinzie Verhines later added a RBI groundout.
With the outcome mostly decided, the Pioneers made one desperate push to get back in it. Carroll loaded the bases on Hedges and scored a run before
DJ Troli came on in relief. She was able to get out of the inning without much further damage and Price came in to wrap things up in the seventh, sitting the Pioneers down in order to end it.
Hedges improved to 6-2 on the season with the win. Reilly and Verhines each had three hits in the game, while Koehler, Prizer, Trout and Hall all had two apiece.
