By: IC starting pitcher Amanda Price and Mariah Hedges held the Pioneers to one run in 14 innings of softball on Saturday.
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GRINNELL, Iowa – The Illinois College softball team earned a big sweep of Grinnell College on Saturday, riding great pitching performances from
Amanda Price and
Mariah Hedges to a pair of 3-1 and 4-0 victories over the Pioneers. The Lady Blues improve their record to 19-11 (11-5 Midwest Conference) with the wins and take sole possession of fourth place in the MWC.
Another important doubleheader awaits IC tomorrow. The Lady Blues will face Cornell College (16-14, 9-5 MWC) in Mount Vernon, Iowa beginning at 1 p.m.
Game One: Illinois College 3, Grinnell 1
Price pitched a complete game in the opener, allowing baserunners in the first five innings but not giving up a run until the bottom of the seventh, by which time the IC offense had put three runs on the board. With the win, Price improved to 7-3 for the season.
It was 0-0 until the top of the seventh inning. There,
Elyce Trout reached on a single out of the reach of the second baseman and with one away,
Marissa Knowles was able to reach on a fielder's choice. On the play, an error on the Grinnell second baseman allowed Trout to stay aboard as well and an
Abby Campbell single with two outs pushed Trout across for a 1-0 lead. With two runners on,
Shelby Koehler doubled to bring two more runs home.
Grinnell threatened in the bottom of the seventh but ultimately came up short. The Pioneers led off with a single, a walk and another single to load the bases with one away. Grinnell scored its lone run on a groundout to Koehler at shortstop and she threw across to
Katie Prizer for the second out, giving up the run in the process. With two outs and two on, another ground ball to Koehler ended the game and gave IC the victory.
Game Two: Illinois College 4, Grinnell 0
Hedges moved to 7-2 on the season with a complete game win. The sophomore allowed only three baserunners, one of which was caught stealing. Two runs in both the second and third innings gave the Lady Blues all the offense they would need.
Lea Hall doubled to start off the second inning and Trout followed with a ground ball. The Pioneers went to third trying to get Hall out, but both runners ended up being safe and another fielder's choice from Knowles made it 1-0 as Hall came home. Later in the inning,
Hannah Knapper hit a sacrifice fly to score Trout.
One inning later, the Lady Blues doubled their lead as
Jackie Reilly and Prizer each singled and Hall laid down a sac bunt to put both in scoring position. Trout was the second out of the inning, but Reilly was safe on the suicide squeeze play to give Illinois College a 3-0 edge. One batter later,
Kinzie Verhines singled to bring Prizer home for the final margin.
