By: The Lady Blues played their home finale on Saturday and took two non-conference losses, but Sunday’s results will decide the team’s postseason fate.
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JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College softball team played its final two games of the 2016 at Jessica Kamp Softball Field, suffering 8-4 and 8-5 losses to Millikin University to fall to 20-14 on the season. The Big Blue improved its mark to 18-20 for the year.
Those might have been the last games of the season at Jessica Kamp Field, but they aren't IC's last "home" games. The Lady Blues meet Lawrence University on Sunday at 2 and 4 pm at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis. to determine if they qualify for the MWC Tournament. Since the game was originally scheduled to be played in Jacksonville, IC will be the home team in each contest.
Game One: Millikin 8, Illinois College 4
Following a pregame Senior Day ceremony for
Abby Campbell,
Amanda Price,
Leah Shumaker and
Kinzie Verhines, Illinois College got off to a fast start but couldn't keep it up throughout. Millikin took the lead with a four-run third inning and cruised from there to claim the opener.
Katie Prizer gave the Lady Blues the lead in the first inning on a one-out double to score
Shelby Koehler. The next batter in the lineup,
Elyce Trout homered to make it 3-0 in favor of IC after one.
Millikin took the lead in the third inning off of reliever
Lanie Thompson. Price threw the very first inning of the game but then was taken out to stay fresh for Sunday's important contest. The Big Blue had their first two hitters reach in the third before a one-out home run tied the game at 3-3.
DJ Troli then relieved Thompson with a runner on and gave up a single that scored the go-ahead run.
The Big Blue tacked on two more runs in the fifth, one in the sixth and one in the seventh to take an 8-3 lead into the final frame. There,
Ryleigh Keith led off with a single and pinch-runner
Mickalah York eventually came around to score, but it was too little, too late for IC and Millikin held on for the victory.
Thompson was saddled with the loss for the Lady Blues, dropping her record to 3-4 for the season. IC had six hits in the game, getting two apiece from Prizer and Trout.
Game Two: Millikin 8, Illinois College 5
Illinois College seemed in control until late in the second game of the day. The Lady Blues led, 4-3, after six innings, but Millikin scored five runs in the seventh and were helped along by two IC errors in that inning to come away with the 8-5 win.
The Lady Blues took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning as Campbell led off with a double and a single by Koehler put runners on the corners with no outs. Though Koehler was eventually out after being caught between first and second in a pickle, Campbell raced home to score on the play for a 1-0 edge. Later in the inning,
Jackie Reilly doubled to left field and a single by Trout made it 2-0.
The Big Blue came back to tie the game in the fourth inning on a pair of hits and a pair of IC errors to make it 2-2, but Illinois College responded in the bottom of the fifth with a two-run home run off the bat of
Marissa Knowles to take a 4-2 advantage.
Millikin cut the lead in half in the sixth inning on a two-out RBI double to make it 4-3 going into the final inning. That's where things went south for the Lady Blues. In the seventh,
Leah Shumaker was relieved by Troli and the Big Blue scored five runs on four hits and two more IC errors to take an 8-4 lead. In the bottom half of the inning, hits by Trout and Knowles put two on and Trout eventually scored on a wild pitch, but that was all the Lady Blues could manage as Millikin completed the two-game sweep.
Troli was tagged with the loss, her first of the season. Illinois College outhit Millikin, 13-9, for the game and were led by two hits each by Koehler, Prizer, Trout, Knowles and Verhines.
