Lady Blues Fight Back to Split at Cornell

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
MOUNT VERNON, Iowa – The Illinois College softball team stayed in the thick of the Midwest Conference race by taking one of two from Cornell College on Sunday. The Lady Blues were one inning away from being the victim of a no-hitter in a 4-1 loss in the opener, but regrouped and won the second game of the doubleheader by a score of 5-1 in eight innings. IC moves to 20-12 (12-6 MWC) on the season, setting a new record for MWC victories in a season. The Rams stay alive by moving to 17-15 (10-6 MWC) on the season. As the Midwest Conference moves towards the final week of the regular season, six teams remain alive for the four MWC Tournament berths.

Illinois College will return home for the last four games of the regular season next weekend at Jessica Kamp Softball Field. The Lady Blues will have Senior Day on April 30 as they battle Millikin University in a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. The next day, IC and Lawrence University will meet in a make-up date of a postponed doubleheader from April 10. Action will start at 12 p.m.

Game One: Cornell 4, Illinois College 1
Freshman pitcher Haley Harmon came within three outs of a no-hitter in the first game on Sunday afternoon, going six innings without an Illinois College hit and building a 4-0 lead before giving up one run in the seventh.

Amanda Price took the loss for Illinois College as she struggled in the early going, giving up a run in both the first and second innings. Later on, the Rams added two more in the fourth to build a 4-0 lead.

It wasn't until the seventh that IC managed a hit on Harmon. Katie Prizer broke up the no-hit bid with a single into center field and Lea Hall followed her with a bunt single to put two on. The threat ended as Cornell turned a double play that scored pinch-runner Mickalah York but brought any real IC threat to an end.

Harmon ended the game giving up two hits and a walk while striking out seven. Price fell to 7-4 for the season, allowing 11 hits and four earned runs.

Game Two: Illinois College 5, Cornell 1 (8 innings)
The Lady Blues took a lead on Cornell in the fifth inning of game two, only to see the Rams come back to tie it in the bottom of the seventh. However, as the game moved to extra innings, Illinois College put four runs on the board in the eighth inning and came away with a very important 5-1 win over Cornell to move to 12-6 in conference play.

Mariah Hedges threw a complete game to improve to 8-2 on the season. She gave up only six hits and one earned run in the eight innings while striking out two.

The game was scoreless until the fifth inning when pinch-hitter Ryleigh Keith singled and pinch-runner Abby Campbell went to second on a sac bunt. With two away, Prizer singled Campbell home to give the Lady Blues a 1-0 lead.

That one-run lead held up until the bottom of the seventh. Runners were on the corners with one out and a sacrifice fly to left field was deep enough to score the tying run to send the game to extras.

Illinois College didn't seem to have much going as the first two hitters of the eighth inning went down in order, but Marissa Knowles doubled to the gap in left-center and Hannah Knapper brought pinch-runner York home with a single to make it 2-1. Later in the inning, two were on for Shelby Koehler and her blast cleared the fence to make it 5-1. Hedges had no trouble from there, allowing just one hit in the eighth to wrap up the win.

Of the 13 IC hits in the game, Jackie Reilly, Prizer, Elyce Trout and Knowles had two apiece.