Lady Blues Remain Atop MWC with Sweep of Lawrence

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – With a sweep of Lawrence University on Sunday, the Illinois College softball team clinched a berth into the Midwest Conference Tournament and remained in control of its own destiny moving forward. Despite trailing into the fifth inning in the first game of the day, the Lady Blues rallied for a 5-2 win over the Vikings. In game two, IC scored in every inning and won, 8-0, in just five innings.

Now winners of eight in a row, the Lady Blues (21-9) stayed tied with St. Norbert at 13-3 in the MWC. Illinois College holds the tiebreaker against the Green Knights thanks to Saturday's sweep. The conclusion of the MWC regular season comes on April 29 in Janesville, Wis. when IC meets Lake Forest College at 3 and 5 p.m. With two games left to play in the conference season, only Illinois College, St. Norbert and Cornell have a chance to host the MWC Tournament.

Before all that, Illinois College takes a break from MWC action to face Fontbonne University in a non-conference doubleheader on April 25 at 3 and 5 p.m. at Jessica Kamp Field. 

Game One: Illinois College 5, Lawrence 2
In the opening game of Senior Day, Illinois College struggled to find offense until the fifth inning. Once they started to hit Lawrence starter Madeline MacLean, the floodgates opened for the Lady Blues and Mariah Hedges shut down the Vikings to earn her eighth consecutive win and move to 11-2 on the season.

Hedges was put into a difficult spot in the top of the first with runners on second and third with no outs, but she got the first out on a pop-up to Marissa Knowles and Samantha Belletini then lined out to Savanna Brady to start an inning-ending double play.

The Vikings got on the board in the second inning when Jackie Reilly had trouble with a high fly ball to left field against a cloudless, sunny sky. Two batters later, a double by Emilia Jackson scored Kori Looker and Lawrence went on top.

The defense again let Hedges down in the fourth inning. With MacLean on second and two outs, Jackson flared a single into right field, but it squirted under the glove of Mickalah York for an error that gave MacLean the chance to scurry home for a 2-0 lead.

Illinois College could get nothing going against MacLean and Mikayla Greenwood struck out to start the fifth inning before an Elyce Trout double began a five-run rally to break the game open for the Lady Blues. Following Trout's double, Hailey Lesser singled to shortstop and Reilly then came up with a single back up the middle to make it 2-1. Shelby Koehler then looked at four straight balls to load the bases and Brady singled to center field to score a run and knot the game at 2-2.

That was all for MacLean and Jackson came on in relief. With two outs in the inning, Katie Prizer lined a single down the right field line to make it 4-2 and the next batter up, Knowles, singled through the left side to score Frankie Sikora.

In the sixth, MacLean singled to start the inning off and was then pinch-run for. With one out, Sofie Pedersen flew out to Koehler in right field and the pinch-runner, Sophie Carter, was caught off of first base for another inning-ending double play. With one runner aboard in the seventh, Hedges got Rheya Upadhyaya swinging to end the game.

Hedges went the distance and gave up nine hits with two runs (one earned) while striking out three. Reilly, Trout and Lesser all had two hits apiece for the Lady Blues on offense.

Game Two: Illinois College 8, Lawrence 0 (5 innings)
After the drama of the opener, Illinois College jumped on Jackson quickly and made certain there would be no chance of an upset in the second half of the twinbill. Jess Feig lowered her ERA to 0.46 on the season and improved to 7-0 with the five-inning shutout.

The Lady Blues got an early look at Jackson when she came on in relief in the first game and they hit her hard right out of the gates. Reilly led off the bottom of the first with a double to left-center and then scored on a one-out single by Brady for a 1-0 lead. The bases were loaded with two down for Greenwood and the junior swung away on a 3-0 count, hitting a single up the middle to score two more runs.

Lesser reached on an error to start the second inning and Reilly cashed her in with a hard-hit double down the left field line for a 4-0 advantage. Later in the inning, Sikora brought Reilly home on a fielder's choice grounder to give IC a 5-0 lead.

In the third inning, Lea Hall manufactured a run all by herself. After leading off with a walk, Hall took second when she alertly took advantage of a lack of coverage at second base by the Lawrence defense. A deep fly by Trout allowed Hall to tag up and move to third with two outs and a wild pitch brought her home to make it 6-0.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Dakota Swingler hit a RBI groundout to score York from third to make it 7-0. After Feig struck out two and sat the Vikings down in order in the fifth, Illinois College ended the game in the bottom of the frame with a two-out double by Reilly to score Ryleigh Keith from second.

Feig gave up just five hits and struck out five without allowing a walk in the victory. Reilly went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs in the game.