The Redbird softball team downed Minnesota, 2-1 in ten innings before falling to No. 19 Florida State, 11-3 in four innings. Illinois State is now 3-2.
We will learn a lot from these two games both of these teams were regional teams last year, head coach
Melinda Fischer said. We need to learn how to handle the pressures of the environment, like the rowdy crowd, the sun and the wind. Those are things you just cant duplicate in practice.
The Birds squared off with the Minnesota Gophers in their first game of the day. Despite being able to get a number of runners on base in the Minnesota contest, Illinois State had trouble moving the runners against Minnesota as 13 runners were left on base. The Gophers left nine runners stranded.
With just six hits and no runs by either team at the end of seven innings, the game went to the international tie-breaker rule. The rule places the last batter of the previous inning on second base to start to following stanza.
In the top of the ninth, Minnesota started with a groundout to the pitcher, moving the runner from second to third. The next batter hit a sharp grounder to first baseman Mandy Garner. Garner threw home but the runner was safe for the first run of the game and the batter moved to second on the throw. ISUs Sheila Emms walked the next batter top put runners on first and second, and freshman Stacy Birk was brought in as relief. Birk caused the next two batters to fly out to retire the side.
Illinois State saved itself from a loss by tying it up in the bottom of the inning. A two-out fly ball to left field by Randi Patton was sure to end the game, but the right fielder lost the ball in the sun and pinch runner Aundrea Parsons was able to score.
The Birds held Minnesota scoreless in the top of the tenth inning before Dominique Borba had one of the biggest hits of her life to drive in the game-winning run in the bottom of the tenth. Her double down the left field line scored Tricia Gaither, who was on second base due to the international tie-breaker rule. The Gophers dropped to 1-1. ISU upped its overall record against the Gophers to 4-4.
The Minnesota game was a really good game, Fischer said. Both teams had opportunities to score and the defense held. We moved some people around on defense and our players adjusted to that really well. Were still struggling at the plate though and lack of execution on some key bunts caused us to leave so many runners on base. But this was a big win for us.
Fischer was please with some of her players individual performances against the Gophers.
Sheila (Emms) pitched really well and started the game out strong. And she pitched really well in some key situations. Dom (Borba) also came up with a big hit in the bottom of the tenth to get us the win.
Against Florida State, Illinois State ended its hitting woes in the top of the first inning by scoring three runs on two hits (a double by Katie Guilbault and a Lauren Bierwirth single). But the Birds looked like an entirely different team after that inning and Florida State looked like a team ranked No. 19 nationally.
The Seminoles scored once in the bottom of the second on an error by the Redbirds and that got the Florida State bats going. Illinois State errors and aggressive base running by Florida State led to five runs in the bottom of the third inning against four ISU errors. The Seminole scored another five runs in the bottom of the following inning. The Seminoles peppered seven hits and committed just one error, while the Redbirds had just two hits and seven errors. ISU is now 1-7 all-time against Florida State. Shannon Nicholson took the loss for Illinois State.
We really just lost our composure, Fischer said. I thought we started out really strong and took advantage of two walks and scored three runs. Then we just lost everything. First we lost our defense, then our pitching and then our bats. Its really tough to give up two innings of five runs each and expect to get back in it. Florida States a program that is used to winning and winning at home and they came back strong and poised in the third inning.
Illinois State will play Florida A&M at 10 a.m. on Sunday. According to Fischer, her team will need to come out hard and play strong if they hope to beat Florida A&M.
