Regular Season Concludes With Loss to Wichita State

NORMAL, Ill. - The Illinois State softball team (25-27, 17-8 MVC) concluded its regular season with a 10-4 loss to Missouri Valley Conference-champion Wichita State (34-20, 21-6 MVC), Sunday afternoon at Marian Kneer Stadium. The Shockers earned a sweep of ISU with the victory.

Even before Sunday's game, the Redbirds were locked into the two seed for next weekend's MVC Tournament at Marian Kneer Stadium. ISU, which is hosting the event for the first time since 2007, earned a double bye into the semifinals, and will play either No. 3-seed Southern Illinois, No. 6-seed Drake, or No. 7-seed Loyola, Friday at 2:30 p.m.

Kolby Hoffman celebrated Senior Day by hitting two solo home runs, the first multi-home run game of her four-year career. Stephanie Gallant also went deep for the Redbirds for the second time in the series. Nichelle Harrison and Jordan de los Reyes tallied one hit apiece for ISU, while Laura Canopy extended her on-base streak to 27 games with two walks.

ISU once again used all three of its healthy pitchers - Regan Romshek, McKensie Vissering and Taylor Baxter. Romshek tossed 1.2 innings in a starting role, before turning it over to Vissering (LP, 0-1). Vissering was brilliant in relief, as she allowed just one run in 3.1 innings pitched, but was pinned with the loss. Taylor Baxter threw the final 2.0 innings of the game for ISU.

Wichita State scored the game's first three runs, all of which came on home runs. Brittany Fortner hit a two-run shot in the first against Romshek, before Cacy Williams went deep in the third to make it 3-0. Vissering came on in relief and kept the Shockers scoreless for the next three innings, however, which set the stage for an ISU comeback.

Hoffman got the Redbirds on the board with a one-out solo blast against WSU starter Sloan Anderson in the third inning. Later in the frame, Canopy scored on a RBI groundout from Romshek to bring ISU back within one. Gallant led off the fourth with a home run to right that evened the contest at 3-3.

Eventually, though, the WSU offense got rolling with a six-run sixth inning. The Shockers sent 11 batters to the plate in the inning, during which Paige Luellen, Paige Mason, Liz Broyles and Ali Vandever all tallied RBI. WSU added another run on a RBI single from Broyles in the seventh to make it a 10-3 game.

Hoffman hit a two-out homer in the seventh to make it 10-4, before Shocker reliever Jenni Brooks (WP, 6-2) closed out the sweep.

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