By: Following a loss to a ranked Illinois Wesleyan team, the Lady Blues trailed DePauw into the fifth inning before exploding for six runs and pulling away.
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WESTFIELD, Ind. – The Illinois College softball team continued to challenge itself in the early portion of the season, playing the first two of four games at the DePauw Invitational on Friday. The Lady Blues fell to No. 16 Illinois Wesleyan University in the opener, 7-1, but rebounded for a come-from-behind victory over the hosts to end the day with a 9-4 win. IC kept its record at .500 on the year, moving to 6-6.
The DePauw Invitational concludes tomorrow for the Lady Blues, first taking on No. 5 Trine University at 12 p.m. (EDT) and then meeting Washington University in St. Louis at 2:30 p.m. (EDT).
Game One – Illinois Wesleyan 7, Illinois College 1
Illinois College fell behind in the first inning on an unearned run and Illinois Wesleyan piled on from there with another run in the third and three more in the fourth.
Jess Feig took the loss for the Lady Blues, falling to 2-2 on the season.
IC missed an opportunity to help its pitcher, leaving the bases loaded in the top of the first. Jillian Runyon then led off for the Titans and reached on an error. She quickly stole second and took third on a groundout. With one away in the inning, Feig uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Runyon to scamper home.
Illinois College again had an opportunity in the second inning with two runners on and one out, but Mackenzie Marquis induced two straight flyouts to center field to end the threat. The lead-off hitter provided more issues for the Lady Blues in the third with Stephanie Prentice singling, stealing second and scoring on a RBI single from Sam Berghoff. Illinois Wesleyan then pounded out four hits and took advantage of two IC errors in the fourth to extend out to a 5-0 edge.
The Lady Blues got their one run in the top of the fifth when
Savanna Brady earned a lead-off walk and made way for
Jessica Belzer on the base paths.
Maddy Morgan singled to put two on with no one out and a one-out double by
Elyce Trout plated Morgan. Illinois Wesleyan tacked two more on in the bottom of the sixth and Ally Wiegand struck out the side in the seventh to end the game.
Trout accounted for two of IC's six hits in the game and also drew a walk in her other plate appearance.
Game Two – Illinois College 9, DePauw 4
In the second game of the afternoon, Illinois College fell behind in the fourth inning, but answered back with a six-run fifth inning to earn a 9-4 win over DePauw.
Mariah Hedges went the distance and improved to 3-3 on the season.
Jackie Reilly led off with a double for the Lady Blues and went to third on a sac bunt from
Shelby Koehler. Morgan got her home from there with a RBI single to right field. Two batters later,
Lea Hall got the green light on a 3-0 count and singled up the middle to score Morgan for a 2-0 lead.
DePauw immediately got both runs back in the top of the second inning to knot the game at 2-2, but Illinois College took advantage of a Tiger error in the bottom half when
Hailey Lesser reached on a throwing error by the pitcher. Later in the inning, IC executed a double steal to score Lesser from third for a 3-2 advantage.
The Tigers tied the game again at 3-3 in the third inning on a RBI triple and then added on another run in the fourth inning on a two-out single, taking the lead for the first time in the game.
Hall led off the fifth inning with a walk, prompting a pitching change from DePauw. Julia Bork struggled to handle the IC offense, getting one out before
Sam Seggerman tripled to the gap in right-center to tie the game at 4-4. The next batter,
Mikayla Greenwood, singled in Seggerman to put the Lady Blues back on top. Two straight walks loaded the bases and a passed ball scored
Jenna Wright to make it 6-4. The assembly line continued with Belzer hitting a double down the left field line to score two runs and Brady added a two-out single to bring Belzer home and increase the margin to 9-4.
Hedges allowed two hits after that, but her defense backed her up and Illinois College held on for the five-run victory.
