After losing six straight games, all of which were in the friendly confines of Redbird Softball Complex, the Illinois State softball team (21-13) looks to snap the streak with a 4 p.m. match-up against Western Illinois in Macomb on Tuesday.
Weve been on both ends of the spectrum this season, we need to find a happy medium and really step it up, ISU head coach
Melinda Fischer said. We need to take one thing at a time. We need to improve every at bat, and we need to strive to have better at bats than weve had recently. Some of our players have made better adjustments even though they dont have anything to show for it. Our players approach and attitudes are very good and thats encouraging. We just need to compete hard every time we step on the field and take advantage of what other teams give us.
Western Illinois (14-17) has already faced two Missouri Valley Conference teams this season. The Westerwinds lost to Drake twice (6-1, 11-5) and beat Northern Iowa (6-4). They are 29-45 all-time against Melinda Fischers Redbirds. Kathy Veroni, an Illinois State alum and ISU Athletics Hall of Fame member, coaches Western Illinois.
Redbird junior Tricia Gaither and freshman Tiffany Prager will reunite with their former Olympia High teammate Western Illinois sophomore Amber Lessen on Tuesday. The trio helped lead their high school team to the IHSA Class A state championship in 2002. Gaither was a senior that year, Lessen was a junior and Prager was a sophomore. The previous year they finished second in the state. Prager and Lessen went on to earn their second championship in 2003 when Olympia repeated its title run.
In the last six games ISU has scored just three runs and has gone .153 at the plate. Only three Redbirds have an average above .182, and one of them has two hits in just three at bats as a pinch hitter. Meanwhile, their opponents are hitting .273 with 18 runs scored and nearly twice as many hits as ISU (42-22).
The last time Illinois State was swept in back-to-back league series was in 2000, the final year of the two-game conference series. The Birds were the victims in three Valley sweeps that year, but went on to win the conference tournament for a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Last season, the Redbirds defeated the Westerwinds, 3-2 in eight innings at Redbird Softball Complex. ISU took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first on an Emily Krueger home run and a Randi Patton RBI double with two outs. WIUs Maureen Troller had a two-out RBI double in the fifth and Brooke Benson had a solo home run in the sixth to tie it up. Then with two out in the eighth, Katie Guilbault reached on a walk. Amy Ehret came in to run and scored on Pattons RBI triple off the wall in left center for the win. Each team had six hits in the game.
