Illinois State third baseman Becky McMurtry showed she did not skip a beat over the summer months after garnering third team All-American honors as a sophomore in the spring campaign. McMurtry , went 5-for-6, with 3 runs scored and 3 RBI Saturday afternoon in opening day play of the 2001 Redbird Softball Tournament at the Redbird Softball Complex.
The ISU White team consisting of the veterans of the 2001-2002 Illinois State Softball team rolled up two victories on the day. In the first victory of the day the Redbirds defeated St. Xavier 4-0 riding the wings of an Audra Rast complete game shutout. The junior hurler surrendered only two hits and one base on balls in the victory. Junior Corey Harris drove in two of the Birds four runs in the victory while pulling double duty playing for both the Red and White teams.
Then in the second game it was McMurtry time. The North Platte, NE native started the offensive attack against Illinois Central College in the bottom of the first with a solo shot over the left-center field wall. McMurtry was not done though, hitting a double with two out in third, scoring one batter later on a Cutie Taylor double. Then, finally finishing off the scoring in the 5-1 win in the bottom of the fifth driving in Katie Shifflet after back-to back doubles by Shifflet and catcher Shae Wesley to start the frame. Normal native Katie Newman pitched four and one-third innings to get the victory before running into some control problems in the fifth and giving way to Rast. Rast earned the save, giving up no runs in her relief appearance and second appearance in as many games striking out four of the five batters she faced. Illinois State head coach
Melinda Fischer was pleased with what she saw out of the veteran squad.
Although the white team is the veterans there a quite a few players who have not game situations at certain positions, said Fischer. We got to see a number of good things from these players in these new positions.
The Illinois State Red team also scored a couple of victories on the day, giving the Illinois State team as a whole four wins on the day. The younger version earned their victories with strong pitching and defense, scoring only four runs in the two victories beating ICC in the opening game of the day 2-0 and St. Xavier 2-1. The Red received strong pitching performances from freshman Krystal Gary and junior Corey Harris. Freshman Erin Carr led the offensive charge for the Red going 2-4 in the two games with 3 RBI.
Fischer also felt good about the pitching performances on the first day.
We saw three solid pitching performances by Audra (Rast), Corey (Harris), and Krystal (Gary).
In the final game of day one ICC beat St. Xavier 3-0. ICC finished the day with one win and two losses while St. Xavier went winless on the day dropping 3 games.
