Senior Melissa Baker hit two homeruns on the day to lead the Illinois State softball team to two wins over Creighton, 2-0 and 1-0, as the Redbirds took the series two games to one over the Jays.
The game was scoreless until Emily Krueger stepped to the plate in the bottom of the fourth inning and pounded her fifth homerun of the season over the centerfield wall. The Redbirds took the early lead over the Jays, 1-0.
Illinois State upped the lead to 2-0, with another homerun over the centerfield wall, this time by Baker, her second of the season.
The 2-0 lead was enough for the Redbirds to call it a victory. Audra Rast improved her record to 15-9, by hurling eight strikeouts and allowing three hits and three walks.
Krueger, Baker and Kate Stake were all 1-for-3 in game one, and first baseman Katie Shifflet was 1-for-1.
The second game of the day remained scoreless until the top of the seventh inning, when Baker did it again. She hit her second homerun of the day over the left-centerfield wall to put the Redbirds up 1-0.
In the bottom of the seventh, Lauren Flores, Creightons best hitter, stepped to the plate with two outs and runners on first and second. After two strikes and two balls, Flores popped up to Redbird second baseman, Stake.
Rast picked up her second win of the weekend, as she hurled eight strikeouts and gave up three hits, but held the Jays scoreless.
Head coach
Melinda Fischer was very pleased with the series victory over Creighton.
It was huge for us to take the series, said Fischer. It was definitely a pitchers weekend.
All four runs that were scored this weekend were homeruns. Creightons 1-0 win on Saturday came with a homerun by Flores.
I cant ever remember this happening in a series before, said Fischer of all the runs scored on homeruns. It has not been our style, but it is good to that kind of power. We had a couple of other opportunities to score but we just could not capitalize.
Illinois State improves to 25-18 overall and 16-3 in the Valley.
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