By: The pitching tandem of Mariah Hedges and Jess Feig limited the Fighting Scots to seven hits over 14 innings as the Lady Blues swept Monmouth on Tuesday afternoon.
Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College softball team finally made its true home debut on Tuesday afternoon and the pitching duo of
Mariah Hedges and
Jess Feig confounded the Monmouth College offense, limiting the Fighting Scots to a combined seven hits and one run as the Lady Blues took both games of a doubleheader by scores of 3-0 and 6-1.
Illinois College improves to 11-7 (3-1 Midwest Conference) with the win, while Monmouth slips to 13-9 (2-2 MWC). The Lady Blues continue MWC play with a doubleheader at St. Norbert College on April 14 at 1 p.m.
Game One: Illinois College 3, Monmouth 0
The first game of the day flew by as Hedges faced just three more than the minimum in getting the win and improving to 6-3 on the season.
Illinois College grabbed the lead in the bottom of the first as
Jackie Reilly was safe on a poor throw from the Monmouth third baseman. With one out and Reilly on second,
Savanna Brady doubled Reilly home for a 1-0 edge.
Hedges was perfect into the fourth inning and continued to stymie Monmouth even after the Fighting Scots managed a base runner against her. In the bottom of the fifth, Monmouth again committed an error against the opening batter of the inning and again the Lady Blues made them pay. After
Mikayla Greenwood reached on the error,
Jenna Wright took her place on the bases and scored on a single by Reilly to make it 2-0.
Another run was tacked on by the Lady Blues in the bottom of the sixth when
Maddy Morgan kept the inning alive with a two-out single and then scored on a triple by
Elyce Trout into the corner in left. Hedges gave up one hit in the seventh, but Greenwood made two plays at third to end the game with no runs coming across.
Game Two: Illinois College 6, Monmouth 1
The Illinois College offense got back to work quickly in game two, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first and four more in the bottom of the third to take a big lead. Feig stranded Monmouth baserunners in each of the first five innings before sitting the Fighting Scots down in order in the final two frames to get the win, improving to 4-3 on the year.
A lead-off walk from Monmouth was negated by a nice 4-6-3 double play on the next batter to help IC get to the plate. After Reilly and Morgan were retired to start the first, Brady singled up the middle and Trout doubled her to third.
Frankie Sikora then deposited a single into center, driving in both runners for the early lead.
A two-out error from Monmouth in the bottom of the third blew the game open for Illinois College. With Reilly and Morgan aboard, Sikora laced a line drive to left but it was playable for the left fielder until she had the line drive pop out of her glove, allowing both runners to score. The inning got away from Monmouth after that, with
Sam Seggerman and
Marissa Knowles both adding RBI singles to make it 6-0 before the Fighting Scots could retire the side.
The Fighting Scots got one back in the top of the fourth, but Feig put the clamps on from there, growing stronger down the stretch to clinch the win.
