By: Big first innings in each game of a doubleheader allowed Illinois College to sweep a Midwest Conference doubleheader with St. Norbert.
Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College softball team had its bats show up in a big way in the first inning of two Midwest Conference games with St. Norbert College and the result was a clean sweep of the Green Knights by scores of 3-1 and 14-2. The Lady Blues improve their mark to 12-6 (4-2 MWC) on the season, while St. Norbert stays winless at 0-10 (0-2 MWC).
Illinois College will be back at Jessica Kamp Softball Field for two more MWC contests tomorrow morning, starting a doubleheader with Lawrence University at 11 a.m.
Game One: Illinois College 3, St. Norbert 1
Due to bad weather in northern Wisconsin, St. Norbert hadn't played a competitive game since March 24 and it may have contributed to the slow start by the Green Knights.
After
Amanda Price got out of a small jam in the top of the first inning, the Lady Blues immediately started going off on St. Norbert starting pitcher Kasey Roff.
Shelby Koehler led off with a hot double down the left field line that ended with her on third base after a misplay in left field.
Jackie Reilly then lined one into left to score Koehler for a 1-0 lead.
The speedy Reilly would steal second and with one down,
Marissa Knowles brought her former high school teammate home with a RBI single that upped the IC lead to 2-0. Following a single by
Elyce Trout, Roff's game was done as the Green Knights turned to Lexi LeCalsey the rest of the way.
The move was a good one as LeCalsey would limit Illinois College to one run the rest of the way, but
Amanda Price was dealing and she had help from her defense along the way. The Green Knights were stymied in the second inning by a snag by
Hannah Knapper on a hard line drive to third base that would have scored at least one.
In the bottom of the 3rd, the Lady Blues were back at it with a two-out rally to tack on a third run. With no one on, Trout and
Kinzie Verhines kept the inning alive with back-to-back singles to bring up
Katie Prizer, who connected solidly and singled to center field to score pinch-runner
Mickalah York from second.
That would be plenty of run support for Price. St. Norbert stranded a runner at second in the fifth inning and left two aboard in the sixth. In their last chance at the plate, the Green Knights scored a run with two down and brought the tying run to the plate in the form of Amanda Van Handel, but Price got her swinging to end the ballgame.
Price upped her record to 4-2 for the season, tossing her sixth complete game of 2016. She allowed five hits and struck out three in 7.0 innings of work. Reilly, Knowles, Trout, Verhines, Prizer and
Abby Campbell all ended with two hits in the game as the Lady Blues outhit the Green Knights, 13-5.
Game Two: Illinois College 14, St. Norbert 2 (5 innings)
While the first game was close until the very end, the second game was over almost before it started.
Mariah Hedges sat St. Norbert down in order in the top of the first and the IC offense back up its pitcher by scoring nine runs on nine hits and an error in the bottom half of the inning to more or less put the game away.
The Lady Blues attacked SNC starter Francesca Marrese almost from the very first pitch. Koehler doubled on the second pitch she saw and Reilly followed with a double to stake IC to a 1-0 lead. After a wild pitch got Reilly to third, Knowles singled back up the middle to make it 2-0. Next up,
Lea Hall was simply trying to bunt Knowles up a station, but an error by Marrese ended with Hall on second and Knowles on third for Trout to drive in on a single back up the middle, increasing the lead to 4-0. Later in the frame, Prizer scored Trout on a RBI single and Knapper was behind her with another single, signaling the end of the day for Marrese after recording one out.
The game one starter for St. Norbert, came on in relief and walked Campbell to load the bases for the top of the order. With two down, Reilly singled to bring two more runs around to score, and both Knowles and Hall would add RBIs before the Green Knights could record the third out.
Given a large lead to play with, Hedges was comfortably in command much of the way. Koehler turned a 6-3 double play to help end the second inning, but St. Norbert did score twice in the third before Hedges got Wilson swinging to end the inning.
In the top of the fourth, Hedges worked around a one-out walk by getting the lead runner at second on a grounder back to her in the circle and then corralling a high pop-up in the middle of the infield. The game was pushed far out of reach in the bottom of the fourth with five runs (all unearned) by the Lady Blues. Illinois College had three hits in the inning and St. Norbert committed four errors before escaping any further damage. Verhines,
Lanie Thompson, Campbell,
Brenna Garland and
Ryleigh Keith all had RBIs in the fourth, pushing the lead out to 14-2. Hedges wrapped up the complete game by leaving two runners aboard in the fifth to end the game early.
The win by Hedges extended her record to 5-0 on the season with four complete games. She gave up five hits and four walks in 5.0 innings, but struck out four and had plenty of help from both her defense and offense to get the win.
The Lady Blues once again outhit the Green Knights by a large margin, this time clubbing 14 hits to five by St. Norbert. Reilly, Knowles, Knapper and Campbell all ended with two hits each in the game.
