TULSA, Okla. – The No. 25 Illinois softball team opened the OSU-Tulsa Invitational with a pair of victories on a cold Friday (March 1) at the Collins Family Softball Complex, posting a 10-9 come-from-behind, eight-inning, walk-off win over Northern Iowa, before defeating host Tulsa, 6-4, in the day's second game.
The Illini have now won nine of their last 10 games and improve to 12-3 on the season, including a 7-0 mark on Fridays.
In the day's first contest, redshirt-senior Carly Thomas became the career doubles leader at Illinois after passing Erin Montgomery's (2011-14) total of 52 two-baggers and currently owns 54 in her Illini career.
"Today we won two hard fought contests against two quality teams," said head coach Tyra Perry. "Carly Thomas paced our offense with her bat in our first game against Northern Iowa and Sydney Sickels did a great job coming in to close the game in extra innings. Veronica Ruelius smashed a home run in the second game against Tulsa to give us a huge boost and Taylor Edwards came in throwing hard to close out the game."
Illinois 10, Northern Iowa 9 // 8 innings
Heading to the bottom of the sixth trailing 8-4, the Illini scored six runs in the final three innings to rally for the 10-9 eight-inning win. Extra-base RBI hits from senior Kiana Sherlund and Thomas in the bottom of the sixth closed the deficit to 8-6, before sophomore Maddison Demers tied things up on a two-run home run in the seventh to force extra frames.
With the international tiebreaker rule in effort and runner placed on second, the Panthers (6-5) pulled ahead at 9-8, but the Illini again responded as a Sherlund RBI groundout brought the tying run across the plate. Thomas then registered her third double of the game, before senior Annie Fleming knocked a walk-off RBI single for the 10-9 victory.
In a back-and-forth affair, the two teams traded runs in the opening frame as Fleming and sophomore Bella Loya posted RBI hits in the first to knot the score at 2-2. After UNI took a 5-2 lead with runs in the second and third, the Illini pulled within one at 5-4 in the bottom of the third on a Thomas solo home run and a pinch-hit RBI double from senior Veronica Ruelius.
Freshman Sydney Sickels (8-2) entered in the eighth and allowed just one hit and one walk, while posting strikeouts for all three outs to earn the win. Senior Taylor Edwards threw two solid innings of relief, giving up just one unearned run on two hits, while senior Emily Oestreich (4 ER, 4 H, 2 BB) started and went 1.2 innings, before junior Akilah Mouzon (3 ER, 4 H, 2 BB) entered and went 3.1 frames.
The Illini totaled a season-high 16 hits in the win and were paced by a 4-for-5 performance with three doubles and a home run, three runs and two RBI from Thomas and a 4-for-4 effort with a double, two runs and an RBI from Loya. Fleming and Demers each also added two hits, two RBI and a run in the win.
Thomas's three two-baggers ties her program record for a single game. She also posted three doubles last season at Southern Illinois on March 2, 2018.
Illinois 6, Tulsa 4
The Illini built a 3-1 advantage with unearned runs in the third, fourth and fifth frames, while the Hurricanes (10-7) scratched a run across in the fourth on a passed ball.
A three-run sixth inning then pushed the Illini lead to 6-1 as Loya notched an RBI single, before Ruelius smashed her first dinger of the season – a two-run shot to centerfield.
UT closed within 6-4 with an RBI sacrifice fly in the sixth and back-to-back home runs in the seventh, but senior Taylor Edwards entered in the circle and earned her first save of the season in a two-hit, two-thirds inning of action.
Sickels picked up her second win of the day after giving up three earned runs on six hits and three walks and striking out three in 6.1 innings.
The Illini recorded nine hits, with senior Stephanie Abello going 3-for-3 at the plate and Loya and Sherlund posting two hits and a run each.
Next Up
The Illini wraps up play at the OSU-Tulsa Invitational on Saturday (March 2) with games against Seattle at 1:30 p.m. CT, and Syracuse at 3:30 p.m., at the Collins Family Softball Complex.
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