The Illinois State softball team was eliminated from the Missouri Valley Conference Softball Tournament, Friday afternoon, as the Redbirds dropped their second consecutive game, this time to the Wichita State Shockers, 1-0.
The Shockers took the 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning as Stephanie Scott hit a double to exchange places with Audrey Walters, who also reached on a double, before the Redbirds could retire the inning.
That was all that was needed for the Shockers to pull out the 1-0 victory over the Redbirds, as Wichita States pitchers, Lindsay Craig and Lindsey Lang, combined for the no-hitter shutout.
The Redbirds started out struggling going three-up-three-down in the first three innings, but failed to score after putting themselves in scoring position in the bottom of the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings, with the help of four Shocker errors.
Redbird Audra Rast pitched her last game for Illinois State, throwing nine strikeouts and three walks, as she gave up four hits and one run. For efforts in the tournament, Rast was named to the Valley All-Tournament Team.
Despite the loss and ending the season earlier than the team had hoped, head coach
Melinda Fischer praised Rasts efforts.
Audra has been everything to our program for the past two years, said Fischer. She is a true team-player and she wanted to take this team all the way.
The Redbirds finished the season as the regular-season champions, with a 20-6 Valley record, but came up short of making the trip to the NCAA tournament.
If you cant hit the ball, you just cannot score, said Fischer. We had some mistakes this weekend that were not typical of us, and I guess it just wasnt our weekend.
Illinois State finished the season with a 29-23 record overall.
--##--
