TITUSVILLE, Fla. – The Illinois College softball team showed up to play in the season opener, taking #17 College of St. Benedict to extra innings before falling, 6-4. Later on the in the day, the Lady Blues wilted in the Florida heat, falling to Muskingum University, 7-0.
IC continues play tomorrow with a pair of games. The Lady Blues meet Heidelberg University at 10 a.m. (EST) and wrap up the day with WPI at 12:15 p.m. (EST).
Game One: St. Benedict 6, Illinois College 4 (8 innings)
Despite being down, 3-0, after the top of the first inning, Illinois College nearly came away with a win over a national-ranked opponent in the opening game of the 2019 season. A tying run in the sixth inning and two more in the eighth inning allowed St. Benedict to hold on for the 6-4 win, improving to 2-1 early on in the year.
Kendra Swanson had the first big swing of the bat on Sunday, knocking a three-run shot over the fence off of
Jess Feig to put the Bennies up, 3-0, in the first inning. Feig shrugged it off and worked quick second and third innings before
Megan Spain put Illinois College on the board in the bottom of the third with a RBI single to score
Sam Seggerman.
In the fifth inning,
Jackie Reilly led off with a double and Spain then smacked a two-run bomb off of Ally Hjort to knot the score at 3-3. As the inning continued,
Savanna Brady singled and pinch-runner
Skylar Dees stole second and third base to set the stage for a
Madisyn Webster go-ahead RBI single.
A Feig error in the top of the sixth helped St. Benedict come back to tie the game at 4-4. The damage could have been worse if not for an inning-ending double play to keep the score level. The game continued on into extras and a runner was placed on second base to start each frame. A two-out single gave St. Benedict the lead and another IC error allowed another run to score. The Lady Blues went down in order in the bottom half to give St. Benedict the victory.
Feig went the whole way for Illinois College and was saddled with the loss. IC totaled nine hits in the contest, with the 1-2-3 hitters of Reilly, Spain and Brady representing seven of them.
Game Two: Muskingum 7, Illinois College 0
In the day's second game, Muskingum broke open a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fourth inning with three runs, then tacked on another four in the fifth inning to emerge with a 7-0 win. The Muskies went to 2-0 on the year, while IC dropped to 0-2.
Freshman
Sydney Hood pitched well in her debut, keeping Muskingum off the scoreboard for the first three innings and escaping a bases-loaded jam in the second. The IC offense couldn't muster much against Muskingum starter Hannah Duff and the Muskies were finally able to break through thanks to three Illinois College errors in the fourth inning to take a 3-0 advantage.
The errors continued to pile up for the Lady Blues in the fifth inning as the lead-off hitter for Muskingum reached on an error and another batter made it to first after striking out thanks to a passed ball. The end result was another four runs and an insurmountable lead.
Hood took the loss for Illinois College, though only four of the seven runs against her were earned. She struck out two over six innings of work.
Grace Frost had the only multi-hit game for the Lady Blues, going 2-for-3 on the afternoon.
