April 25, 2007

Final Stats

Urbana, Ill. - Wednesday night was senior Brittany Koester's birthday. The senior catcher almost gave her Illini teammates the ultimate gift, a game-winning home run. Koester's two-run blast won the game for Illinois in extra innings Tuesday vs. Eastern Illinois.

Trailing by a run with one out and one on and one out in the seventh vs. WIU, Koester hit a shot that left the ballpark, but foul, then sent one to deep left field that was caught near the warning track. Illinois' last hope, Sarah Bryers came close as well with a blast to the warning track,that was caught for the final out as Western Illinois (18-20) completed a 5-4 victory over the Illini (29-20) at Eichelberger Field.

Illinois came up just short, literally. Two Illini doubles hit off the wall, the one off the bat of Molly Lawhead led off the fourth, but the Illini were not able to get her home. Illinois left 10 runners on base and stranded runners at third in the first, third, fourth, fifth and six innings, one elusive hit away from pulling out the victory.

Illinois' hitting prowess has been well documented, but the last two nights vs. Eastern and Western Illinois, the Illini have just 13 hits in 23 innings.

WIU got all the runs it would need in the second and third innings. A two-out solo home run from Erin Schlofeldt made it 1-0 after two. The Westerwinds added four runs in the third, doing so with five singles.

The Illini chipped away with a bases loaded walk in the third to Lana Armstrong, padding to her Illinois record in RBI (51). Three more walks, an RBI double from Martin and run scoring single to left by Lawhead keyed a three-run fifth inning rally to make it 5-4. Illinois had base runners in the final two innings, but couldn't get the big hit.

Junior Claire DeVreese had another impressive outing in relief for Illinois, retiring the side in order in three of her four innings of work and getting an impressive 3-6-4 double-play behind her in the sixth.

The Illini host the World's Largest Softball Tailgate party prior to the 2 p.m. game with No. 15 DePaul Satutrday.