Illinois State used home runs from upperclassmen Randi Patton, Kate Stake and Katie Guilbault to claim a pair of Missouri Valley Conference wins (8-0, 2-0) over Indiana State in Terre Haute, Ind. With the wins, the Redbirds evened their league record at 9-9, while improving to 25-14 overall.
The Birds entered game one with a three-run lead after the game was suspended at Redbird Softball Complex on March 30. With two on and two out, Patton lifted a pitch over the wall in left field to give ISU a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
The game resumed with two outs and the bases empty, but Lauren Bierwirth quickly restarted the offense with a single to left center. She scored on a Sycamore error to give her team a four-run first inning.
Indiana State (9-23, 4-14) threatened in the fourth after a leadoff walk and a single. But the Birds got a force out at third base, before getting a double play to get out the inning. Jessica McGivney reached on a single to right field. Meanwhile, the runner from second attempted to score but was thrown out at the plate by Jackie Williams just before RaeAnn Ewen threw out McGivney trying to advance to second.
In the fifth Stake reached on a leadoff single, moving to third on a sacrifice bunt and a groundout. Patton drove in her fourth run of the contest with a RBI single down the left field line.
The Birds made it a ballgame in the sixth courtesy of the run-rule. Ewen started the rally with a leadoff single, advancing to second on an error. Pinch runner Aundrea Parsons stole third base, and then scored on Guilbaults sacrifice fly. Following a walk to Jackie Williams and a groundout, Stake hit her seventh homer of the season to end the game, and hand the Birds the 8-0 victory.
Shannon Nicholson (13-9) earned the win, allowing just five hits while striking out one and walking two. Patton and Stake each had two hits and a home run, while Patton drove in four runs to Stakes two.
The nightcap was an extra-inning affair much like the two teams first meeting in Normal. Sycamore starter Darcy Wood stymied the Illinois State offense, striking out nearly every Redbird that came to the plate at least once for a total of 12 punch-outs.
Tricia Gaither started the game with a double to right field, but that was the only hit the Redbirds got until the top of the ninth when Guilbault played the hero. With Patton on second after reaching on an error and moving over on a sacrifice bunt, Guilbault homered to left field to give Illinois State the win.
ISU got out of sticky situations in first, fifth and eighth innings en route to the shutout. The Sycamores left a runner on third base in both the first and fifth innings. In the eighth, the Birds got a double play to get out of the frame with runners on first and second.
Stacy Birk (12-5) was the pitcher of record in game two. She struck out four and surrendered five hits.
