JACKSONVILLE, Ill.- The Illinois College Lady Blues earned their first Midwest Conference Championship in program history after defeating Lake Forest College in the MWC Softball Championship this Saturday. This earns the team an automatic bid to the NCAA DIII Softball Tournament.
Game 1- Illinois College 4, Lake Forest College 7
The Lady Blues suffered a close loss in game one of the three game series to the Lake Forest Foresters. Lake Forest would get off to an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
Illinois College would answer back scoring a run in the top of the third and scoring two more runs on a home run by
Emma Newton. Lake forest would put together a string of unanswered runs in the bottom of the fifth and the sixth innings to pull away and claim the win to take the 1-0 series lead.
Game 2- Illinois College 3, Lake Forest College 2
Illinois College would need to bounce back from their game one loss to keep their season alive. Newton was able to hit her second home run of the day also bringing in a run by
Madisyn Webster to put the Lady Blues up early.
Lake Forest then tied the game in the top of the second with two runs of their own.
Maddy Morgan would bring in the go ahead run in the bottom of the fourth to ultimately give the Lady Blues the win and force game three.
Julia Drake had an outstanding performance pitching all seven innings earning 11 strikeouts.
Game 3- Illinois College 2, Lake Forest College 0
After both teams earning a win in the first two games, the series was forced into a winner-take-all tiebreaker. The Lady Blues would get on the board first with a run by Webster in the top of the first.
The Lady Blues were able to add to their lead after
Grace Braun singled to bring in
Claudia Adam to make the score 2-0.
Exceptional defense and pitching earned the Lady Blues the win in game three giving the team their first Midwest Conference title in program history.
Julia Drake was incredible in game three for the Lady Blues pitching another seven innings earning six strikeouts and allowing no runs.
Illinois College will now look ahead to the NCAA DIII Softball Tournament. Tune in Monday, 5/17 for the NCAA Division III Softball Selection Show airing on NCAA.com at 12:00 PM CT to find out who the Lady Blues will face in the first round.
