By: Each game of Wednesday’s doubleheader ended early as the Lady Blues were up by eight runs through five innings.
Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – In spite of yet another cold and windy day in the area, the Illinois College softball team had little trouble in brushing aside Knox College for two victories on Wednesday afternoon. The Lady Blues ended each contest early, winning the opener, 10-2, in six innings, and later adding an 11-3 victory in five innings. IC, winners of four straight and seven of its last eight, improves to 13-7 on the season and 5-1 in the Midwest Conference.
The Lady Blues travel to take on Cornell College tomorrow afternoon in Mount Vernon, Iowa, with games starting at 4 and 6 p.m.
Game One: Illinois College 10, Knox 2 (6 innings)
Really the only time on Wednesday that Illinois College looked like it might be in trouble came in the top of the first inning when a two-out error allowed two Knox runs to score for a quick Prairie Fire lead. Then the Lady Blues came to the plate and order was restored.
By batting around and scoring four runs in the first inning and adding two more in the second, the Lady Blues gave
Mariah Hedges all the support she would need in a complete-game victory, improving the senior to 7-3 on the season.
Down a pair of runs, the Lady Blues took the lead back in the bottom of the first before Knox could even register an out.
Jackie Reilly led off with a single and then stole second. A
Shelby Koehler single back up the middle brought her around to cut the deficit in half at 2-1. The next hitter,
Savanna Brady, doubled to put two runners in scoring position and a
Lea Hall single tied the game at 2-2. The Lady Blues then executed a double steal to plate Brady for a 3-2 advantage. After a flyout moved Hall over to third base, the senior scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-2.
Hedges flew through the second inning, recording a pair of strikeouts, to get IC back to the dish.
Elyce Trout drove in two runs with a two-out single, upping the Illinois College lead to 6-2. In the bottom of the fourth,
Mikayla Greenwood drove in Trout with two down in the inning and then advanced to second when the Knox right fielder couldn't field the ball cleanly.
Christin Mathias singled one batter later to bring Greenwood home and increase the lead to 8-2 heading into the fifth.
The Prairie Fire were retired in order in both the fifth and sixth, and the Lady Blues pushed across the winning runs in the bottom of the sixth to end the game early. After
Frankie Sikora was hit by a pitch to start the inning,
Jenna Wright pinch-ran and scored on a Trout double to make it 9-2. With two down in the inning,
Megan Spain singled Trout home for the 10-2 victory.
Reilly and Trout each had 3-for-4 games at the plate for Illinois College. Hedges went 6.0 innings, allowing only five hits while striking out five and walking no one.
Game Two: Illinois College 11, Knox 3 (5 innings)
The Lady Blues didn't wait to fall behind in the second game. After
Maddie Nichols escaped an early jam by striking out two straight Knox hitter to end the top of the first, Illinois College put five runs on the board in the bottom of the first and proceeded to score at least one run in every inning. Nichols took the win to improve to 2-1 on the season.
Reilly led off with a single over the head of the third baseman, then stole second and scored on a Brady double. Trout added a RBI single to the left-center gap and an error allowed Sikora to come in for a 3-0 lead. With runners on second and third, a groundout by
Jessica Belzer brought Trout home, and a wild pitch right after that scored Spain.
In the bottom of the second, Trout drove in another run, this time driving in
Maddy Morgan after the freshman opened the inning with a lead-off single.
While Knox was squandering run-scoring opportunities in every frame, Illinois College took full advantage. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the third, Brady ripped a triple down the line in right field to score all three runners for a 9-0 lead. Knox finally got on the board in the top of the fourth, but were immediately answered by a RBI double from
Marissa Knowles.
After the Prairie Fire stayed alive with two runs in the top of the fifth to cut the IC lead to 10-3, the Lady Blues let the offense end it as Sikora singled in Reilly for the game-winning run.
Brady led the IC offense, going 3-for-4 with four RBIs. Reilly, Trout, Knowles and
Sam Seggerman all had two hits apiece.
