Oct. 1, 2011
NORMAL, Ill. -
NORMAL, Ill. - The Illinois State softball team opened the State Farm Illinois Collegiate Softball Championship by winning its first two games and earning a spot in Sunday's gold bracket. ISU topped Western Illinois, 8-0, in six innings in its opener, before downing Illinois-Chicago, 6-2, in nine innings in the nightcap.
Senior pitcher Jordan Birch tossed a complete-game shutout and struck out seven to lead the Redbirds over the Flames. Birch scattered just three hits over her six innings of work to earn the win inside the circle.
Offensively, senior catcher Caiti Kopp drove in three runs on a pair of hits and ended the game with an RBI double in the bottom of the sixth. Senior Liz Andrews notched a pair of hits and scored twice, junior Lauren Kellar drove in three runs and sophomore Kolby Hoffman drove in a pair of runs with a two-run double.
"In our game with Western Illinois, we got our offensive going early and Jordan pitched a great ballgame," head coach Melinda Fischer said. "We played well defensively and I got to see a lot of the things I wanted to see from our younger players. Kolby had a great day at second base and helped us offensively by driving in our first two runs."
In the nightcap, UIC jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, plating runs in the first and second innings. Illinois State was held scoreless until the top of the sixth, when junior Jhavon Hamilton plated Hoffman on a double to right and junior Elizabeth Kay drove in the tying run with an RBI single that scored Hamilton.
The game remained tied, 2-2, after seven innings and extra frames would be needed. The Redbirds took the lead in the top of the ninth on a two-run triple by Kellar and Kay added an insurance run with another run-scoring single later in the inning. Sophomore Laura Canopy capped the inning with a sacrifice fly to make the score 6-2 in favor of ISU.
Senior Megan Warner held the Flames scoreless over the final seven innings to record the win in the circle and put Illinois State into Sunday's gold bracket.
"I thought we were out of synch in all areas against UIC, especially in the early innings," Fischer said. "Slowly we got back into it, got our confidence going when we were able to tie it up and got our bats doing what they are capable of doing. Megan got stronger as the game went on and any time a pitcher can battle and finish the game stronger than what she started it, I think that is a good thing at this point in the season."
Illinois State will open Sunday's bracket play against Illinois at 12:30 p.m. The winner of that contest will advance to the championship game against the winner of DePaul/Southern Illinois at 3 p.m.
"It is exciting to have all 12 Division I schools in Illinois at the same place," Fischer said. "There were some very competitive games and we had some great crowds out here today. It was just a very exciting atmosphere."
GoRedbirds.com: Your online source for Illinois State Athletics, tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
