By: There wasn’t much to separate the Lady Blues and Rams on Saturday. Cornell took the opener, 2-1, but IC fought back for a 4-3 win later in the day.
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JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – In an early-season battle between two teams projected to qualify for the Midwest Conference Tournament, there wasn't a whole lot to separate the Illinois College softball team and Cornell College on Saturday afternoon. The Rams won the first game of the twinbill by a score of 2-1, but IC came back to claim a 4-3 victory in the second game of the day. Cornell moves to 10-5 (1-1 MWC), while the Lady Blues now stand at 7-7 (1-1 MWC).
Illinois College will take a brief break from conference play with a doubleheader on April 3 at Iowa Wesleyan University. Game times are at 4 and 6 p.m. in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.
Game One: Cornell 2, Illinois College 1
Cornell took a two-run lead in the third inning and Illinois College couldn't mount a comeback until its final turn at the plate. The Lady Blues cut the lead in half, but the Rams were able to escape with the victory. Starting pitcher Haley Harmon improved to 7-1 on the season while
Mariah Hedges fell to 3-2 for IC.
The Lady Blues put runners on in the first two innings against Harmon, but failed to move a runner past second base. Cornell then took the lead in the top of the third inning as a lead-off walk to Cody Stockert, followed later by an infield single put runners on the corners with one out. Getting aggressive on the basepaths, Cornell used a double steal to get the first run across. With two outs, a single to left-center brought another run in and made it 2-0.
The Rams put runners on second and third with no outs in the sixth, but Hedges dug in and got two pop-outs and a strikeout to get out of the jam. That helped set the stage for the bottom of the seventh when
Katie Prizer led off with a single. Pinch-hitter
Marissa Knowles then came in and doubled down the left field line to score pinch-runner
Kailey Talley, making it 2-1. Harmon took over from there however, getting two strikeouts and forcing a pop-out to shortstop to end the game.
Jackie Reilly paced the IC offense from her lead-off spot, going 3-for-3 in the game. Hedges allowed nine hits in a complete-game performance, striking out four and walking just one.
Game Two: Illinois College 4, Cornell 3
After Illinois College took a 1-0 lead in the second inning, things started to look grim after Cornell rallied and took a 3-1 edge going into the bottom of the fifth. The Lady Blues stepped up in the clutch however, scoring three times in the fifth and holding on from there to earn the victory.
Jess Feig went 5.1 innings and got the win, moving to 3-0 on the season.
DJ Troli got two important outs in the sixth inning and
Mariah Hedges pitched the seventh to get her first save of the season.
The Lady Blues went up early after
Frankie Sikora led off the second inning with a solid single up the middle. A groundout from Prizer put Sikora on second base with two outs and an
Elyce Trout single brought the freshman home for a 1-0 lead.
Feig didn't give up a hit until the fourth inning, but a single followed by a double quickly made it a 1-1 game before she got out of the inning. In the top of the fifth, Feig put the first two batters down in order before a single up the middle kept the inning alive. Facing lead-off hitter Carley Robison, Feig fielded a grounder that could have ended the frame, but her throw to first went over the head of
Savanna Brady and the runner on first hustled around to make it 2-1. The inning spiraled from there and the Rams tacked on another run before the Lady Blues could end it.
Trout started off the bottom of the fifth with a single into right field and pinch-runner
Rachel Alcott was on second with two outs. That's when the top of the IC order finally got to Cornell pitcher Jesse Applehans. Reilly kept her hot bat going with a double down the left field line to bring Alcott home, making it 3-2.
Shelby Koehler then followed with a single up the middle and advanced to second as the throw home to get Reilly came in too late. With the score tied at 3-3, Brady hit a ball up the middle that had just enough on it to escape the Cornell shortstop and score Koehler to put the Lady Blues back on top, 4-3.
Cornell loaded the bases with one out on Feig in the top of the sixth and that was the end of the day for the junior. Troli then entered the fray and needed only a few pitches before getting a lineout to Reilly in left field. The Cornell runner at third had left on contact and Reilly easily threw to Prizer at third base to get the double play and end the threat.
In the seventh, Hedges slammed the door shut against the top of the Cornell order. The Rams reached only via a two-out error, but Hedges got the Ram clean-up hitter to fly out to
Hailey Lesser in center field to end the game.
