April 18, 2006

Box Score

Urbana, Ill. - The match-up between Illinois and Illinois State featured two of the top 25 teams in the country in terms of home runs and two of the top clubs in the Midwest, offensively. What fans at Eichelberger Field got, however, was a good old fashion pitchers' dual. In the end Illinois State scored an unearned run in the seventh to pull out a 3-2 to victory.

The win was important for Illinois State (28-11) trying to make the Missouri Valley's case for more at-large teams. The Redbirds have played 10 ranked teams and won two. Illinois (19-25) has been playing well lately against quality teams, which included a win last week against DePaul, a team that has been in the Top 25.

"We're playing to win all the time," said Illinois Head Coach Terri Sullivan. "I expected a real battle; we always have that with Illinois State. In the end we just left two many runners on base."

Illinois out-hit Illinois State, 7-4, but left six runners on base. The critical inning, as it turned out was the fifth, where Illinois had the bases loaded with one out and the heart of the order due up, yet managed just one run.

Jenna Hall moved back above the .500 mark for the season by going 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Rachelle Coriddi was 2-for-3 and scored both of Illinois' runs.

The duo accounted for the first run of the game right out of the gate. Coriddi led off with a single up the middle, stole second and scored on Hall's double off the fence in left field.

Each time the Illini scored, ISU answered right back. In the top of the second inning, Jessie Buker singled home Stacy Birk to tie the game at 1-1.

Claire DeVreese (14-13) didn't allow another hit until the sixth inning and retired nine in a row at one point. "I was really pleased with our battery today," Sullivan said of DeVreese and catcher Brittany Koester. "(Illinois State) is a good hitting team, yet hey held them in check for the most part."

Three straight singles by Coriddi, Hall, and shortstop Angelena Mexicano in the fifth loaded the bases for Shanna Diller, who did a nice job of hitting the ball to right side allowing the lead run to score.

A two-out single from Birk tied the game at 2-2 in the sixth. The Redbirds took advantage of an Illinois error to score a run on a sacrifice fly for the eventual game winner. ISU starter Shannon Nicholson retired the side in order in the bottom of seventh to improve to 15-5 on the season.

The Illini return to Big Ten play Friday at Minnesota for the first game a two-game series.