Sept. 15, 2005
Urbana, Ill. -
Illinois Head Coach Terri Sullivan says that a year's experience for her club has already shown itself during fall practice. A year ago following the graduation of nine seniors, the Illini leaned heavily on a group dominated by freshmen. While this year's upperclassmen give the team a much needed experience factor, the group of freshman gives the squad a lot of flexibility.
The Illini will showcase themselves this weekend at the always competitive Chicagoland Fall Classic in Orland Park, where Illinois faces five in-state opponents in two days. The schedule includes Northern Illinois (9 a.m), Bradley (5 p.m.) and Illinois-Chicago (7 p.m.) on Saturday (Sept. 17) and Illinois State (10 a.m.) and DePaul (noon) on Sunday.
This is the second of four weeks of games for the Illini. Last weekend Illinois defeated Parkland College, 14-3, before falling victim to the late-game comeback by the Alumni, who prevailed, 4-3. Next weekend Illinois plays Kankakee Community College on Sept. 25 before the best-of-three Orange and Blue World Series Sept. 27-29 at Eichelberger Field.
"The fall is used as a practice to see how the team is progressing, to work into shape physically, and to give us an opportunity to try different combinations," Sullivan said. "The coaching staff has been really impressed with how the team has been working together and how excited they are to be back on the field."
Senior leadership from Jenna Hall, who belted two home runs last weekend, and the multi-faceted Rachelle Coriddi are representative of how balanced the team appears to be. "Offensively, we have a team that can beat you with both power and pure speed," Sullivan said. "We can already see that the defense is solid and our pitching staff is better. Last year were in almost every game, so we believe we have a team that is developing into a winning squad. From spots 1-22 we have players who are already contributing to our success."
As far as the weekend goes, Sullivan says she'd like her team to look at the weekend as a whole instead of individual games. "Every time you step in between the lines you want to win obviously," she said. "Or goals this weekend, though, are to collectively out-score, commit fewer errors, walk few batters, etc., than our five opponents."
Illinois is playing this fall without two of the major cogs on the team. Shanna Diller is out with mononucleosis while Claire DeVreese is recovering from a hand injury. DeVreese is starting to throw with the team this week, but will likely not pitch this weekend.
That has meant the pitching duties will be shared by freshmen Kacey Coonce and Brooke Buzard and senior Jackelyn Diekemper. Coonce is perhaps the most versatile player that the Illini have had, batting clean-up in the order and playing second base while not pitching. Coonce threw five innings of shutout ball in collecting the win against Parkland.
When Coonce pitches, another freshman, Courtney Hoogeveen, is playing second base, while last year's third-leading hitter Molly Lawhead has moved back to the outfield and has been starting in right. Lana Armstrong has been strong behind the plate, both handling the pitchers and throwing out runners, gunning down speedster Lindsey Hamma in the Alumni game. Kisten Martin had three hits from the designated player spot on Friday vs. Parkland.
Performances both in practice and during the two games thus far have proven Sullivan's belief true that the team could have a different hero each game. That should spell an exciting spring for Illini softball.
