ATLANTA, Ga. – The Fighting Illini softball team used a four-run seventh inning to break a 6-6 tie and earn a season sweep over Georgia Tech with a 10-6 win in the finale of the I-75 Challenge on Sunday (Feb. 26) at Mewborn Field.
The Illini improve to 8-5 on the season and finish the I-75 Challenge with a 3-2 record.
"It was a great team effort today," said head coach Tyra Perry. "We started the game off with a timely hit from Nicole Evans and we ended on a clutch pinch hit from Veronica Ruelius. It was nice to see our bats carry over from Saturday."
Entering the seventh with the score knotted at 6-6, the Illini rallied for four runs as redshirt-freshman pinch hitter Veronica Ruelius brought home the go-ahead run with a two-RBI single to left field. Sophomore Kiana Sherlund then added a pair of insurance runs with a two-RBI single up the middle two batters later.
Sophomore Taylor Edwards (5-1) entered in the fourth frame and allowed just one unearned run on two hits and one walk, while totaling a career-high five strikeouts in 4.0 innings of work to earn her fifth win of the season.
Senior Nicole Evans went 2-for-3 with four RBI and a run, with Sherlund posting three hits and two RBI for the Illini. Junior Maddi Doane turned it a 3-for-4 performance with an RBI and a run, and junior Annie Fleming added two hits and two runs.
It was a quick start for both teams as Evans bombed a three-run homer – her team-leading sixth of the season - to left field in the opening inning.
The Yellow Jackets responded with back-to-back home runs to lead off the bottom of the first frame, before taking the lead at 5-3 with three runs in the bottom of the fourth.
The Illini cut the deficit to one in the top of the fifth with an RBI double from Evans, before taking a 6-5 lead in the next inning with junior pinch runner Jill Nicklas scoring on a GT throwing error and a Doane RBI single through the right side.
A Yellow Jacket RBI sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth then evened the game at 6-6, before the Illini took control in the top of the seventh.
As a team, the Illini registered 15 hits and two errors, while the Yellow Jackets had seven hits and four miscues on the day.
Senior Breanna Wonderly started the contest and gave up two runs on two hits in the first inning, before sophomore Danielle Brochu entered in relief and allowed two earned runs on three hits and six walks, while striking out two in 3.0 innings.
Illinois next heads to Baton Rouge, La., for the LSU Invitational, hosted by LSU on March 3-5, with the Illini facing off against Illinois State, FAU, Troy and the host Tigers in the three-day tournament.
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