Lady Blues Drop Two Tight Games to Lake Forest

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College softball team battled hard, but fell twice to Lake Forest College on Sunday in Midwest Conference action. The Foresters were able to eke out 4-1 and 9-7 victories over the Lady Blues, with the latter game taking eight innings to decide a victor. LFC improves its record to 8-9 (3-1 MWC) on the season, while the Lady Blues fall to 10-6 (2-2 MWC).

Illinois College is back home at Jessica Kamp Softball Field on April 6 for a doubleheader with Knox College. The Lady Blues and Prairie Fire are scheduled for a 3 p.m. start.

Game One: Lake Forest 4, Illinois College 1
Illinois College took a 1-0 lead into the fifth inning of the opener, but Lake Forest scored runs in each of the final three innings to come away with a 4-1 win. Both starting pitchers went the distance, but Jessi Werner was able to earn the victory to improve to 5-4 on the season, while Amanda Price fell to 3-2 on the year.

After two quiet innings to start off the contest, Price sat the Foresters down in order in the top of the third and brought the Lady Blues to the plate. After a pair of strikeouts to start the inning, Shelby Koehler doubled down the left field line and Jackie Reilly then hit a pop-up into left that Marie Zepeda lost in the sun and dropped for a single to bring Koehler in for a 1-0 lead. 

The score stayed right there until the top of the fifth inning. After Koehler made a leaping grab of a line drive off the bat of Sydney Gardner to keep the bases empty, Alyssa Grimm launched a solo home run off the scoreboard in right to knot the game at 1-1.

In the sixth inning, Lake Forest went ahead thanks in part to a hustle play from Alex Hemmer. Vasi Panos led off with a single, but she was erased from the basepaths when Hemmer grounded to Hannah Knapper at third and the junior threw to Elyce Trout at second to get the lead runner. However, with the defense relaxed after recording the out, Hemmer took advantage of a lapse to sprint to second with no one covering the bag. Hemmer was then on third with two outs in the inning when Sally Snarski snuck a single back up the middle to give the Foresters a 2-1 lead.

Lake Forest added some insurance in the seventh, scoring twice with two outs in the inning. Two runners were on when Hemmer singled into center field, scoring one run, however the Lady Blues then committed an error as the ball came back into the infield to allow another run to score, giving LFC a 4-1 lead going to the bottom half. 

In their last at-bat, the Lady Blues brought the tying run to the plate after singles by Lea Hall and Marissa Knowles, but Knapper ended the game with a fly out to center field.

Werner struck out 12 IC hitters in the game and allowed four hits over 7.0 innings. Price fanned seven Lake Forest batters and allowed six hits in the game.

Game Two: Lake Forest 9, Illinois College 7 (8 innings)
The Lady Blues fell behind, 4-0, going into the bottom of the third inning, but fought back to send the game to extra innings before being undone by a pair of home runs in the eighth.

Four pitchers made appearances in the game for Illinois College, but Leah Shumaker was charged with the loss despite throwing three solid innings before running into trouble in extras. Werner won her second game of the day to run her record to 6-4 this season after coming on in relief of starter Jenny McTague in the third inning.

Lanie Thompson started the game for IC and allowed two runners to reach for Lake Forest in the first before escaping any further trouble. In the second, she wasn't as fortunate. An error to start the inning put a runner on and Grimm followed with her second homer of the day to give the Foresters a 2-0 lead. Two batters later, Zepeda hit a solo shot to right to increase LFC's lead to 3-0.

In the third, Lake Forest tacked on one more run to its lead and it came at a cost for Illinois College. Runners were on the corners with one out when Kat Beall tried to steal second. Knowles rifled a throw to Koehler at second and Koehler applied the tag to get the out, but a cleat caught Koehler and forced her out of the game the rest of the way. Later in the inning, runners were still on the corners and a double steal allowed Kaleigh Ambrose to come home to up the LFC lead.

In the bottom of the third, the Lady Blues got back into it. McTague threw eight straight balls to start the inning and put two IC runners aboard. With the bases loaded and one down, Trout singled to center field to score one run and keep the bags juiced. The next hitter, Kinzie Verhines, singled again and two runs scored to make it 4-3. At that point, McTague was lifted for Werner and the game one winner got out of the inning without allowing another run.

The game stayed at 4-3 until the bottom of the fifth when Trout led off with a no-doubt solo shot to straight-away center field, tying the contest at 4-4. Shumaker sat Lake Forest down in the sixth and seventh, allowing only a walk in those two innings. However, the offense couldn't pick up the slack and the game headed to extra innings still knotted at 4-4.

In the eighth, Shumaker induced a fly out to start the inning, but Desiree Velazquez reached on a tough pop-up between Natalie Halpin at second and Abby Campbell in right. With one runner on, Zepeda homered to center field to give the Foresters a 6-4 lead. After a single, Shumaker made way for Price, but Snarski launched a three-run home run to left before the Lady Blues could get out of the inning to take a 9-4 lead. 

Facing a tiring Werner, the Lady Blues started off the bottom of the eighth with singles from Thompson and Knapper before Campbell's third home run of the season made it 9-7 and reignited IC's hopes. Still with no outs in the inning, Mikayla Greenwood singled to left to bring the tying run to the plate. Things stalled from there however as Reilly hit a hard line drive directly at Zepeda in left. After that, Hall popped up to shortstop and Beall had the ball pop out of her glove, but was able to pick the ball up and get Greenwood at second as she was forced to stay close to the bag at first to avoid a double play. Down to their last out, the Lady Blues received a couple hard-hit balls from Knowles, but the game ended with a sliding catch from Zepeda in foul territory in left.

Illinois College cranked out 11 hits in the game, but Trout was the only player for IC with more than one as she ended the day 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run.