By: Illinois College had a lead late in both games of a twinbill, but Millikin rallied in the sixth inning of game one and in the seventh inning of game two to snatch away two wins.
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DECATUR, Ill. – The Illinois College softball team suffered a pair of losses on Monday afternoon to Millikin University, falling by scores of 4-2 and 4-3. The Lady Blues led each game in the closing innings, but the Big Blue rallied twice to earn the wins. Millikin improves to 13-7 on the season while IC slips to 6-6.
Illinois College begins Midwest Conference play at home on April 1, hosting Cornell College at Jessica Kamp Softball Field at 1 and 3 p.m.
Game One: Millikin 4, Illinois College 2
A number of great defensive plays kept the game tied for five innings before things went crazy in the sixth inning. The Lady Blues took a 2-0 lead in the top half before giving up four runs in the bottom of the frame to take the loss.
Mariah Hedges (3-1) took the loss for her first defeat of the season.
IC's defense got the game started as
Mickalah York fired home from right field to get the runner trying to score to end the first inning. In the second inning, IC ended the inning with a double play as
Elyce Trout snagged a liner and doubled off the runner leaning away from first.
Millikin answered back with a defensive play of its own. With two on and one out,
Shelby Koehler flied out to shallow right field.
Hailey Lesser tried to tag and score but the throw home got her in time to keep the game knotted at 0-0. In the bottom of the third, IC ended the inning with yet another double play.
Jackie Reilly made the play in left field and threw across the diamond to get the runner from first.
In the sixth inning, the first two Illinois College hitters grounded out to shortstop.
Savanna Brady came through with a two-out single to center and
Frankie Sikora homered to give the Lady Blues a 2-0 edge.
The lead lasted only until the bottom of the inning. Millikin loaded the bases with one out and a single to center plated two runs. Later in the inning, another two-run single upped the lead to 4-2 and ended the day for Hedges. Illinois College went down in order in the seventh to give the Big Blue the win in the opener.
Game Two: Millikin 4, Illinois College 3
Illinois College got on the board quickly in the first and last innings of the game, but Millikin had the answer each time.
Leading off the game, Reilly bunted for a hit and an error from the Big Blue defense allowed the speedy sophomore to reach third. Koehler scored her immediately with a sacrifice flyout to right field, making it 1-0.
In the bottom of the first, an error from the IC defense put a runner on second to start the game against
Jess Feig. From there, a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly scored the runner to level the game at 1-1.
The game remained tied until the seventh inning. Brady reached on an error and moved to second on a wild pitch. A single by
Katie Prizer put runners on the corners with one away and a walk to
Marissa Knowles loaded the bases.
Mikayla Greenwood followed with a single, scoring two runs and giving Illinois College a 3-1 advantage.
In the bottom of the seventh, Millikin loaded the bases with one away in the inning and tied the game as the Lady Blues tried to turn two to end the game. The throw got away from Prizer and two runners scored to make it a 3-3 game. Two batters later, a double brought the winning run home to give the Big Blue the sweep of the doubleheader.
