Lady Blues Battle to Gritty Split Against Ohio Northern and Widener

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
KISSIMMEE, Fla. – The Illinois College softball team suffered a tough loss against an undefeated Ohio Northern University team in its opener on Thursday, but recovered to shut down Widener University in the afternoon for a 1-1 day. The Lady Blues move to 4-4 overall on the season.

IC plays its final games in Florida tomorrow, facing Montclair State University at 9 a.m. (EST) and Rowan University at 11:15 a.m. (EST).

Game One – Ohio Northern 3, Illinois College 2
Illinois College nearly threw a wrench into Ohio Northern's perfect record, but the Polar Bears drove in two runs with two outs in the bottom of the fifth to regain the lead, and Kirsten Lightel (4-0) handled it from there to get the win. Mariah Hedges kept a potent ONU offense in check, but suffered the loss to fall to 2-2 on the season.

The game began quickly for Ohio Northern as two soft singles and a hit batter loaded the bases with no outs. Hedges was able to settle in, limiting the Polar Bears to just a sacrifice fly RBI to make it 1-0 as the Lady Blues picked up the bats for the first time.

Illinois College responded quickly, with Jackie Reilly starting off with a lead-off walk. From there, she was sacrificed to second by Lea Hall and brought in on a single by Frankie Sikora. Later in the frame, two runners were on for Savanna Brady and Maddy Morgan came in to score on a slow roller.

Pitching was the story for the next few innings, with neither team mounting much of a challenge until the top of the fifth. A one-out single by Jenna Hollar followed by a steal of second put the speedy lead-off hitter for the Polar Bears in scoring position. She completed the circuit with a two-out double by Alicia Swierz, knotting the game at 2-2. Clean-up hitter Gabby Stewart followed with a double that just stayed fair down the third-base line to bring Swierz home for a 3-2 ONU advantage.

Illinois College put its lead-off hitters aboard in both the fifth and sixth innings, but good defense by Ohio Northern saw Sam Seggerman picked off first as part of a double play to end the fifth and Hall caught stealing second to bring the sixth to a close.

Mikayla Greenwood ended an Ohio Northern threat with a 5-3 double play in the top of the seventh, but the Lady Blues couldn't get anything going against Lightel, going down in order in the bottom half to end the game.

Game Two – Illinois College 4, Widener 1
Big production at the top of the batting order paved the way for an Illinois College victory to close out the afternoon. Reilly was 3-for-3 and Brady added two hits with a home run out of the clean-up spot to help Jess Feig earn the win, improving to 1-1 on the year for the junior.

A Ryleigh Keith single and a Widener error on a bunt put two runners on. Reilly then moved the two runners over with a sac bunt of her own and Morgan drove in Keith on a sacrifice fly to center.

Brady extended Illinois College's lead in the top of the fourth inning with a lead-off home run to the alley in left-center to increase IC's advantage to 2-0. She struck again in the fifth with a two-out single to right, driving in Reilly from third base for a 3-0 lead.

Feig ran into her only real trouble of the day in the bottom of the sixth when the Pride loaded the bases with no outs in the inning. Relying on her defense to help her, Feig quickly retired consecutive hitters on fly balls to left before Widener was able to scratch one run across on a single to right. The next batter lined out to Brady at second to end the threat.

Illinois College gave Widener the same treatment in the seventh, loading the bases with no outs. Hall hit a sac fly out to right field, scoring Megan Spain before the Pride could escape the jam. Given a 4-1 lead, Feig slammed the door shut with a 1-2-3 bottom half of the frame, getting the last two hitters on swinging strikeouts.