GALESBURG, Ill. – The Illinois College softball team traveled to Knox College on Tuesday afternoon and came away with a pair of 9-1 wins over the Prairie Fire in six innings to wrap up a long road swing through the Midwest Conference. With the two victories, the Lady Blues improve to 12-10 (7-3 MWC).
Illinois College comes home for four games this weekend at Jessica Kamp Field, starting with a doubleheader against Grinnell College on Friday afternoon starting at 12 p.m.
Game One: Illinois College 9, Knox 1 (6 innings)
Still a close game until the fourth inning, a three-run blast from
Jackie Reilly opened the floodgates in Illinois College's first win of the day over Knox.
Sydney Hood pitched another complete game, improving to 6-4 on the year while striking out seven and giving up only three hits.
Illinois College took the lead in the third inning when Reilly hit a one-out double and
Savanna Brady doubled her home with two down in the inning. Hood had still faced the minimum going into the fourth inning when the Lady Blues blew it open.
Sam Seggerman drove in
Frankie Sikora to make it 2-0. Later on, Reilly's homer scored Seggerman and
Megan Spain to increase the IC lead to 5-0 and put the game out of reach.
Knox finally got its first hit against Hood in the fourth inning, but were unable to push anything across to cut into the Illinois College lead. In the sixth inning,
Emily Baalman was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score Spain and make it 6-0.
Marissa Knowles followed with a pinch-hit three-run home run to make it 9-0. Hood was on the verge of a one-hit shutout in the bottom of the sixth until the Prairie Fire strung two hits together and scored a run. The game ended on the next hitter, however, with a groundout to Spain ending the game.
Reilly was 3-for-4 with three RBIs and three runs scored.
Madisyn Webster added a pair of hits in the game as well.
Game Two: Illinois College 9, Knox 1 (6 innings)
The second game of the day between IC and Knox was scoreless until the fourth inning, but a six-run fifth from the Lady Blues opened up a wide margin and allowed them to close out the game early.
Jess Feig earned the win with a one-hitter, allowing only a solo home run to Katy Coseglia.
Like Hood before her, Feig was perfect through 11 batters before Coseglia's home run in the bottom of the fourth. Fortunately for the Lady Blues, they already had a 2-0 lead before the solo shot thanks to a sacrifice fly from
Ryleigh Keith that managed to score both Webster and Knowles.
In the top of the fifth, Illinois College pulled away thanks to four hits, an error, a walk and a hit batter.
Jessica Belzer grounded out to score Seggerman for the first run of the frame. Brady then followed with a single that brought Reilly home for a 4-1 lead. The big hit in the inning came from pinch-hitter
Jenna Wright. The sophomore cleared the bases with a double to plate Keith, Webster and Brady.
Mariana Babic then doubled in Wright to make it 8-1. The Lady Blues took an eight-run lead in the sixth when Reilly s
