JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – In a battle of the two teams who came in with the best conference records in the Midwest Conference, the Illinois College softball team split at home with St. Norbert College, falling 5-1 in the opener before rallying back for a 4-1 win in the second game of the day. The Lady Blues move to 8-8 (3-1 MWC), while St. Norbert goes to 13-9 (6-2 MWC).
MWC play continues for the Lady Blues on Tuesday with the first of four consecutive conference doubleheaders away from Jessica Kamp Field. Monmouth College will be the opponent on Tuesday, with the first game getting started at 3 p.m.
Game One: St. Norbert 5, Illinois College 1
The top and bottom of the St. Norbert order gave the Illinois College starter and a pair of relievers fits in the first game of the day. The 8-9-1-2 hitters in the Green Knight lineup combined for nine of SNC's 13 hits in the game and contributed three of the four RBIs in the win.
The trouble for Illinois College started in the top of the second when nine-hole hitter Allison Knop singled home Randi Morack for a 1-0 lead. The Lady Blues evened the score at 1-1 on a two-out triple from
Savanna Brady to bring
Megan Spain around to score. From that point on, however, it was all Green Knights.
St. Norbert scored a single run in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings to pull away for the win. Briana Braeger had the go-ahead RBI in the top of the fourth, though the damage would have been worse if not for a good relay from
Sam Seggerman to
Christin Mathias to
Ryleigh Keith at the plate to keep another run from coming in.
Taylor Ullman added another RBI in the fifth inning. The Green Knights then scored on an IC error in the sixth and tacked on some insurance in the seventh by drawing a bases-loaded walk to bring another run in.
The Lady Blues managed nine hits in the game, but were undone in part by base-running errors that saw St. Norbert end IC's last three turns at the dish with a double play off of a caught line drive.
Game Two: Illinois College 4, St. Norbert 1
Behind the pitching efforts of
Sydney Hood, Illinois College regrouped and earned a split with the Green Knights on Sunday. Hood took home her second win of the weekend, going the distance and allowing only six hits in her 7.0 innings of action.
This time around, Illinois College was able to jump ahead in the bottom of the second inning. A
Frankie Sikora double led off the inning, but she was stuck at third with two outs before three straight walks drove her in and spelled the end of the day for St. Norbert starter Morgyn Zielke. The Green Knights were able to tie the game in the top of the third inning, but the game remained 1-1 only until the bottom of the third.
Emma Molenhouse got the win in the first game of the day, but she had less luck in relief in game two. After Brady started off the third with a single down the line, another Sikora double drove her in for a 2-1 lead. In the bottom of the fourth, Seggerman and
Hailey Lesser reached base to start the inning and a run scored on a fly ball to right field by Spain. The catch was made for the second out, but the St. Norbert right fielder's throw to third trying to get a tagging Seggerman was off-line, allowing her to score. Brady followed with a double to drive in Lesser for a 4-1 advantage.
That would be all the offense Hood would need. St. Norbert managed a two-out single in the fifth, but the IC defense quickly slammed the door shut on the inning. In the sixth, the Lady Blues turned a 6-4-3 double play after a one-out walk. In the top of the seventh, St. Norbert had its first two batters reach base, but Hood got Abigail Chada to strike out swinging, then induced a pair of groundouts to end the contest.
