ROCK ISLAND, Ill. – The Illinois College softball team fell twice on Sunday in the Augustana Invitational, dropping a 7-6 decision in nine innings to the University of Dubuque in the first game of the day before losing to the hosts, 7-5, in the second contest. IC closes the Augustana Invitational at 1-3, moving to 5-7 on the season.
The Lady Blues wrap up their road swing with a doubleheader at Fontbonne University on March 29 before returning home to Jessica Kamp Field for their home opener against North Park University on March 30.
Game One: Dubuque 7, Illinois College 6 (9 innings)
One day after losing to Dubuque by eight runs in a six-inning game, Illinois College very nearly evened the head-to-head matchup with the Spartans. UD was able to score the tying run in the top of the seventh, however, and pushed two more across in the top of the ninth to hold off the Lady Blues.
After Dubuque took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a sacrifice fly, Illinois College came back to tie and then take the lead in the bottom of the frame.
Sam Seggerman knotted it at 1-1 with a RBI triple to score
Jackie Reilly. One batter later,
Grace Frost drove in Seggerman with a RBI double.
UD would rally with one run in the top of the second and two more in the top of the third to take a 4-2 edge. The score would remain right there until the bottom of the sixth. With Seggerman and
Hailey Lesser on the basepaths, Frost drove in Lesser with a RBI groundout and Seggerman tied it at 4-4 when the Spartans committed an error. The go-ahead run was
Frankie Sikora, coming around to score on a
Jessica Belzer single.
Dubuque had to score in the seventh to keep the game alive and two singles among its first three batters of the inning helped the Spartans do just that. With runners on first and third and one out, Brandy Heraty hit a RBI groundout to send the game to extras.
With international rules in effect, neither team was able to score in the eighth despite starting with a runner on second. Dubuque then plated two runs in the top of the ninth to make it 7-5. Starting the bottom of the ninth with
Maddy Morgan on second, Reilly doubled the sophomore home to make it 7-6. UD was able to close out the game from there however, leaving Reilly stranded on second.
Game Two: Augustana 7, Illinois College 5
Augustana got some revenge for being on the receiving end of a three-hit shutout yesterday from Illinois College, coming out hot in the opening innings and hanging on to beat the Lady Blues.
The Vikings started fast with Alyssa Klahn belting a solo home run out of the two-spot in the lineup for Augustana. That made it 1-0 right away and Augie added two more runs in the bottom of the first inning. Klahn then came back to the plate in the bottom of the second and drove in another run for the home team with a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0.
Illinois College got back in it in the top of the fourth.
Savanna Brady and Seggerman reached base to start the inning and they were driven in by a RBI double off the bat of
Ryleigh Keith. Morgan then drove Keith in with a RBI groundout to make it 4-3. Augustana would push the lead back to two, 5-3, with a solo shot from Marissa Catalano in the bottom of the inning.
The home runs continued to fly out of the park in the bottom of the fifth. Carly Wilson hit a solo homer with one out in the inning and Taylor Belo followed with a two-out blast to increase Augustana's lead to 7-3. The Lady Blues tried to get back in it in the top of the seventh. Reilly and Brady each drove in runs on RBI groundouts, but 7-5 was as close as it would get for IC.
Megan Spain and
Madisyn Webster each collected two hits in the game for the Lady Blues.
