Sept. 3, 2007
NORMAL, Ill. -
With fall classes having started just two weeks ago, the Illinois State softball team prepped itself for its upcoming fall tournament season with a 12-inning simulated scrimmage against Heartland Community College Monday afternoon at Redbird Softball Complex. While no official score was kept, both sides put on an offensive display that put the unofficial run tally for each team into the double digits.
Illinois State head coach Melinda Fischer saw Monday's scrimmage as an opportunity to allow her veteran players to begin to instill in their new teammates the mindset of playing the game with strong fundamentals, both offensively and defensively.
"We started the game with our returning players on the field, and I thought that they set the tone early on for what we wanted to do in the game," said Fischer. "We told all of our players, `No matter if you are a returning player or a newcomer, you need to watch every player that was at your position today to learn from them.'"
Heartland got on the board first in the top of the second inning. Kate Singler drove in the first run in the program's history, scoring Hannah Dow on a ball hit to deep right centerfield.
The Redibrds first runs of the fall season came in the bottom of the second inning, when they scored three runs on just three hits. Michelle Henderson led off the inning with a home run over the left field fence. After Kaprice Williams walked, Katie Thoennes drilled a line drive over the Hawks' third baseman into the left field corner that brought Williams around to score. Kara Nelson singled in the third ISU run of the inning, dropping a base hit into shallow right field to score Thoennes.
ISU's home run leader from last spring, Jessie Buker, continued her offensive output in the bottom of the third inning, drilling her first home run of the fall season deep over the left centerfield fence, bringing in Amber Smith, who had reached base earlier in the inning off a walk.
With Heartland moving into base runners on first and third situations in the top of the sixth inning, the Hawks scored two runs, largely due to the two-base runner advantage they had.
The Redbirds used a small-ball hitting technique in the bottom of the sixth inning to score three runs off five singles. After Buker and Jennifer Brown led off the inning with singles, Katie Mathis hit a two-RBI single, scoring both Buker and Brown. Abby Olson got another run back for ISU when she drove a single into center field to bring home Jessica Roche, who had reached earlier in the inning on a single.
Callie Schmidt knocked in the fourth Hawk run of the day in the top of the seventh inning when she reached on an infield single, scoring McKenzie Phillips. Two batters later, Dow brought Heartland back into the game with a three-run home run deep into left centerfield.
Andrea Shifflet put the `Birds back on the board just one inning later, lining a single up the middle to bring in Casey Gorrell, who reached earlier in the inning on a walk.
Heartland scored two more runs in top of the eighth inning. Playing once again with base runners on first and third, the Hawks took advantage of a Redbird defensive misplay on a fly ball to left field to bring in both of their first and third situation base runners. Heartland scored a single run in the ninth inning, before bringing in two more runs in the 10th inning.
ISU scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, thanks to an error by the Heartland shortstop that allowed both Kasey Martin and Roche to score. The Redbirds scored once more in the 10th inning, before recording their final three runs of the game off the bat of Buker, who notched her second home run of the game in the bottom of the 12th inning with a drive to dead centerfield.
Illinois State received strong pitching efforts in the circle from both Walker and Mitchell. Starting the game for the `Birds, Walker pitched three innings, surrendering just one run on two hits. Mitchell, who came in to pitch in the top of the fourth inning, recorded six strikeouts in three innings of work, while giving up only two hits and one base on balls. Rachel Smith, Chrissy Burton and Amber Smith also pitched for the Redbirds over the final six innings of the scrimmage.
The Redbirds return to action Saturday and Sunday when they host the annual Illinois State Fall Classic at Champion Fields in Normal, Ill. ISU will face Illinois Central College (ICC) at 10 a.m. Saturday, followed by a 2:30 p.m. matchup against Lake Land. Sunday's competition will see ISU and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville (SIU-E) square-off at 12:15 p.m., followed by the tournament finale, a 4:45 p.m. game between ISU and Bradley.
NOTES:
- This was the first intercollegiate softball game for Heartland, which prior to this year, had never fielded any collegiate sports team.
- The Redbirds executed a perfect outfield cutoff play in the top of the third inning to throw out a Heartland would-be scorer. With Kelsey Wilson on first base, Breanna Ghere doubled over Jessie Buker's head. Buker then relayed the ball back to shortstop Kaprice Williams, who threw a perfect strike to catcher Casey Gorrell to easily throw out Wilson by three feet.
- Amber Smith made a key defensive play for the `Birds in the top of the 11th inning. Pitching with a runner on first base, Smith caught a hard line drive back up the middle to thwart a possible Heartland offensive output.
- The Hawks recorded a rare triple play in the bottom of the eighth inning. With Amber Smith and Diciembre Vaca both on base, Heartland's shortstop threw out Casey Gorrell at first base. Vaca was then rundown between second and third base, followed by Smith, who recorded the third out of the play when the Hawks threw her out at home trying to score on the rundown.
