March 26, 2004
Box Score
Palo Alto, Calif. - Illinois started hot and held on to defeat Brigham Young 3-2 in the opener of the Stanford Classic. LeeAnn Butcher was 3-for-3 against the Cougars and Amanda Fortune gave up five hits and struck out eight for the Illini against BYU.
Fortune was nothing short of spectacular in the first four innings, allowing only two base runners and striking out five. BYU had runners on first and third in the fifth, but Fortune was able to coax a pop-out for the third out.
Cougar shortstop Jodi Norton smacked a home run to left field in the top of the seventh, cutting Illinois' lead to 3-2. But Fortune retired the next two batters to seal the Illini victory.
Illinois broke through in the first inning, taking advantage of two Cougar errors. Rachelle Coriddi reached on an error by the second baseman then stole second. Jenna Hall moved her to third with a single. Coriddi scored when pinch runner Laura Zobrist stole second and the throw bounced into center field.
Leading 1-0, Illinois added two more runs in the second inning. Katie O'Connell singled up the middle to lead off the inning, and advanced to second on Julie Balicki's groundout. LeeAnn Butcher then legged out an infield single and advanced to second when the second baseman attempted to throw out O'Connell at third. Janna Sartini came through with a clutch RBI single through the left side. Lindsey Hamma then drove in LeeAnn Butcher with a sacrifice fly to right field.
