JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College softball team celebrated the program's 40th anniversary on Saturday with a pair of wins over Ripon College. The Lady Blues were playing at Jessica Kamp Softball Field for the first time all season and rode their home-field advantage to a pair of Midwest Conference victories, improving to 7-7 (2-0 MWC). IC took the opener in a pitcher's duel, 3-1, then exploded for an 8-0 win in five innings in the second game of the day.
Sydney Hood and
Jess Feig combined to limit Ripon to only four hits in 12 innings of play.
The day included a celebration of 40 years of Illinois College softball, bringing past players and coaches back to campus. The Lady Blues were outfitted in throwback uniforms that mimicked the uniforms worn by the first IC team back in 1979.
Illinois College stays at home tomorrow afternoon, taking on St. Norbert College in a twinbill starting at 12 p.m.
Game One: Illinois College 3, Ripon 1
Sydney Hood threw a complete game three-hitter in her first career home start, improving to 3-3 on the season. The freshman struck out six and outdueled Ripon's Lexi Reetz, who has befuddled IC hitters the past three seasons before the Lady Blues got to her in her senior season for eight hits and three runs (two earned).
Jackie Reilly led off the bottom of the first inning with a double to the gap in right-center, then scored later in the inning on a wild pitch after
Megan Spain had moved her over to third with a sacrifice bunt. Two innings later, the scenario repeated itself with a lead-off Reilly double and sac bunt from Spain. With Reilly 60 feet away from scoring,
Savanna Brady laid down a perfect bunt to bring her in for a 2-0 advantage.
The Red Hawks had had very few scoring opportunities up until the top of the fifth. Ripon put a runner on third with one out before Hood induced a strikeout and a ground out to end the threat. In the bottom of the inning, aggressive baserunning by
Skylar Dees helped IC grow the lead to 3-0. Dees, in as a pinch-runner, swiped third and a bad throw into the outfield allowed her to scamper home.
Ripon's only run came in the sixth. With two outs and runners on the corners, an infield single was enough to drive in Micaela Encarnacion. It was the first run Ripon has scored on the Lady Blues since 2016. Hood got out of trouble and then struck out two in a fairly routine seventh inning to close it out for the win.
Both Reilly and
Madisyn Webster had three hits in the contest for the Lady Blues.
Game Two: Illinois College 8, Ripon 0 (5 innings)
The second game was nowhere near as close, with Illinois College plating at least one run in each of the five innings. Feig flirted with a no-hitter, allowing only one hit and getting the win to improve to 3-4 on the season.
Feig walked a pair in the top of the first, but also struck out two hitters to escape the jam. The Lady Blues took the lead in the bottom of the inning when Reilly reached on an infield single and stole second. She moved to third on a flyout from Spain and then scored on a Brady popout to the edge of the infield.
Webster added onto the lead in the second inning, following Reilly's lead of reaching on an infield single and stealing second base. From there, a
Ryleigh Keith single to left brought the speedy freshman home for a 2-0 lead. Keith would come home on a Reilly single before the inning was over to increase IC's edge to 3-0.
From the end of the first inning through the start of the fourth, Feig retired eight straight hitters, putting Ripon down in order in both the second and third. In bottom of the third, Illinois College made it 4-0 on an unearned run that scored thanks to a Ripon error. In the fourth inning, Spain led off with a single, moved up to second on a wild pitch and then scored on a Brady double to make it 5-0.
Following another 1-2-3 inning from Feig in the fifth, Illinois College put three runs on the board in the bottom half to end the game early. Keith led off with a single and moved up on a
Christin Mathias sacrifice bunt.
Hailey Lesser then drove Keith in with a single to center. A Reilly single put runners on the corners and Spain drove in a run on a bunt single to make it 7-0. In need of one more big hit, Brady blasted a ball over the head of the center fielder to score Reilly for an 8-0 lead, activating the run-rule and bringing the game to an end.
After her two early walks, Feig was nearly perfect the rest of the way. She ended up with hit allowed in her 5.0 innings and struck out 10. Reilly and Spain each had three hits at the top of the IC line-up as part of a 15-hit effort from the offense.
