Feb. 11, 2007
Final Stats
Miami, Fla. -
Illinois completed its first weekend of the 2007 season with an 8-0, five-inning victory over No. 20 Louisville in the third place-game of the Diamond Fun & Sun Classic in Miami. The Illini were 3-2 on the weekend, which included two victories over the nationally-ranked Cardinals.
Senior first baseman Kisten Martin and junior left fielder Makenzie Smith were each named to the All-Tournament Team. Smith was 1-for-3 with two runs scored on Sunday and batted .400 with two doubles, three RBI and two runs scored in the tournament. Martin, meanwhile, was 2-for-2 with a walk and a run scored vs. Louisville and batted .313 with a double, a grand slam and six RBI for the weekend.
"Mak had a great offensive weekend," said Illinois head coach Terri Sullivan. "She came with the game plan that I'm going to relax in the batter's box and do what she had to do at the plate. We expect Kisten to pick up where she left off last year offensively, and she got it done in a lot of different ways in this tournament."
Freshman Vicky Brown tossed a complete game shutout, giving up just two hits while striking out three in five innings in recording her first collegiate victory. The Cardinals only had one runner reach second base against Brown.
"Vicky and (catcher) Lana (Armstrong) did a great as the battery today," Sullivan said. "Vicky had some strikeouts, had the hitters guessing and was ahead in the count."
Martin delivered a two-out RBI single, scoring Angelena Mexicanofrom second in the bottom of the first. Although all five Illinois runs were unearned in the fourth, it was Martin's hustle that got the inning started. She beat out a ball hit into the hole between first and second for an infield single. From there a combination of Louisville errors and timely Illini hitting put the game out of reach.
Armstrong (2-for-3, run) delivered a run scoring single while freshman right fielder Hope Howell drove in two more runs with a bases loaded two-run single to right field. Shanna Diller drove in the final run of the inning while pinch hitter Sydney Lisy also singled in the inning.
