Champaign, Ill. - The Illinois Central College softball team went toe-to-toe with #4 Parkland but dropped both games by identical scores of 1-0 in Region 24 action on Wednesday afternoon at PC Softball Field.  Kiersten Manning and Olivia Drish both pitched gems for the Cougars, but the offense could not muster any runs against the PC pitchers.  Parkland, who has now won seven straight, improved to 24-8 (4-0 in Region play) while ICC fell to 9-9 (2-2 in Region play).

"Kiersten and Liv were really good for us today," head coach Heather Doty said, "but we just couldn't get the timely hit to score.  We'll regroup and get ready for Spoon River." 

Game 1 Recap
Parkland scored the lone run in the bottom of the second inning as a batter reached base on an error, followed by a walk, and then a single.  Manning struck out the next two batters to limit the damage.

The Cougars had their best scoring opportunity in the top of the fifth when Shylar Boze doubled and Marley Williamson singled with one out but PC escaped after a groundout and strikeout ended the threat to keep the score at 1-0 in favor of the home team. 

Boze had a one-out double in the top of the seventh, but was stranded to end the game.  She went 2-2 for the Cougars at the plate while Manning was a beast on the mound striking out 13 Cobras and giving up just two hits, with an unearned run in six innings.


Game 2 Recap
Offense was also scarce in the nightcap; Gracie White had a two-out single in the top of the third and Manning had a lead-off single in the fourth but both were left on base.

Parkland's run came in the bottom of the fourth with no outs on a walk, single, walk, and single but Drish buckled down and limited Parkland to just a 1-0 lead.   Drish pitched six innings and struck out four with one earned run.

Next up
Sunday, April 2 at Spoon River (Canton, IL) at 1pm DH