By: Illinois College defeated St. Norbert by scores of 6-5 and 8-2, putting the Lady Blues on the doorstep of clinching a MWC Tournament berth.
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Box Score 2
BELOIT, Wis. – The Illinois College softball team had hot bats on a cold day, defeating St. Norbert College in a doubleheader by scores of 6-5 and 8-2 in two games played at the home of the Beloit College Buccaneers. The Lady Blues improve their record to 19-9 (11-3 Midwest Conference) on the season, putting themselves on the brink of clinching a spot in the MWC Tournament.
Illinois College is back in action tomorrow afternoon with games against Ripon College (16-16, 10-4 MWC) at 3 and 5 p.m. in Janesville, Wis.
Game One: Illinois College 6, St. Norbert 5
Illinois College found itself comfortably ahead early on, but St. Norbert stormed back to tie the score at 5-5 before the Lady Blues plated the go-ahead run in the top of the fifth.
Mariah Hedges shut down the Green Knights from there, earning the win to improve to 11-3 on the year.
The scoring opened in the top of the second for the Lady Blues when
Jackie Reilly tripled off the wall in left to bring home
Sam Seggerman and
Hailey Lesser. The next hitter,
Maddy Morgan, blasted a home run to left, making it 4-0.
Following a 1-2-3 inning from Hedges to retire the side in the second,
Elyce Trout led off the third inning with a solo shot to make it 5-0. That ended the day for the St. Norbert starter, Emma Molenhouse, who gave way to Ellie Olsen in relief.
After Hedges got the first two batters of the third inning to strike out, St. Norbert put together a two-out rally to get back into it. Back-to-back singles plus a hit batter loaded the bases for Amanda Diedrich, who then walked in the first Green Knight run of the game. A single followed to make it 5-2 entering the fourth inning.
In the bottom of the fourth, St. Norbert pulled within a single run on a one-out double that scored two runners to make it 5-4. Later in the inning, St. Norbert pulled off a double steal to knot the game at 5-5.
Though the momentum had shifted away from them, the Lady Blues were able to manufacture the go-ahead run in the fifth. Trout led off the inning with a single and she was moved to third base with the help of a St. Norbert error. With one away in the inning, Lesser grounded into a fielder's choice for the second out, but it did enough to bring Trout home for a 6-5 edge.
Given the lead back, Hedges didn't let it go to waste. The senior sat St. Norbert down in order in both the fifth and sixth innings. In the seventh, Randi Morack led off with a single, but Hedges worked her way through the heart of the Green Knight order to wrap up the complete-game victory.
Reilly led the Lady Blues from the lead-off spot, going 3-for-3 with a walk. Morgan and Trout each added two hits each as well.
Game Two: Illinois College 8, St. Norbert 2
With the wind picking up and blowing in, the Lady Blues played a lot of small-ball en route to the win in the second game of the day.
Jess Feig held St. Norbert to six hits to improve to 6-5 on the season.
In the top of the first, Lesser,
Savanna Brady and Trout hit three consecutive singles to load the bases. St. Norbert was able to get the second out without letting a run come in to score, but a two-out error a batter later allowed two runs to cross home plate for IC.
The Green Knights answered back with an unearned run in the bottom of the first, but the Illinois College offense was all over SNC starter McCoy Mix, tacking on two more runs in the top of the second inning. Lesser had a RBI single to make it 3-1 before Trout had a two-out RBI double to increase the lead to 4-1.
In the third inning,
Christin Mathias and
Mikayla Greenwood both reached, leading to a RBI double from Seggerman to make it 5-1. At that point, St. Norbert went back to Olsen out of the bullpen, but Lesser was able to bloop a double down the left field line to increase IC's edge to 7-1.
St. Norbert got a single run back in the bottom of the third, but 7-2 would be as close as the Green Knights would get. Illinois College pushed its margin back to six runs on a RBI single from Brady in the top of the fifth. Feig got the Green Knights to go down in order in the fifth and seventh innings, giving up just a single base-runner in the sixth to close out the win.
Lesser supplied a 4-for-4 game for the Lady Blues in the second contest, while Reilly, Brady and Trout all collected two hits each.
