Danville, Ill. - The Illinois Central College softball team used a scrappy effort to defeat Danville 5-4 in the opener of their doubleheader at Winter Park on Wednesday.  The Cougars tallied five runs on four hits in the top of the seventh and then held off a furious Jaguar rally to earn the win in gritty fashion.  Danville took the second game by a score of 8-0.

"We're proud of our team for the resilience we showed in game one," coach Heather Doty said.  "Liv pitched well and our kids stuck together and battled the entire game." 

Game 1:  ICC 5, Danville 4
After Danville scored a run in the first after a lead-off walk scored on an RBI single making the score 1-0, the game became a pitchers' duel.  ICC did manage two singles each from Olivia Stirnaman and Shylar Boze and a double by Kiersten Manning but those did not result in any runs.  

Olivia Drish did her work on the mound keeping the Jaguar bats off balance, but scoring took a major turn in the final inning for both teams.  Marley Williamson and Boze had lead-off singles and Gracie White reached on an error scoring Williamson to make it 1-1.  Stirnaman laid down a bunt that DACC mishandled, allowing another run to score to put the Cougars up 3-1.  Brooke Cordray and Manning belted back-to-back doubles adding two more runs, making the score 5-1.

Drish threw eight pitches to the first two batters in the bottom of the seventh, inducing a fly out and ground out for the first two outs.  And then the Danville offense made things interesting with two singles and two walks to draw the home team to within 5-2.  The next batter doubled on a line drive to left field, scoring two more runs to narrow the Cougar lead to just 5-4.  With runners on second and third and Danville looking for more, Drish bore down and struck out the final batter on five pitches for her ninth strikeout and a Cougar victory.

Hitting
Olivia Stirnaman | 2-4, RBI
Brooke Cordray | 1-4, double, RBI
Kiersten Manning | 2-4, 2 double
Shylar Boze | 3-3

Pitching
Olivia Drish | 7 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 9 K


Game 2:  Danville 8, ICC 0
The Cougar offense struggled to put runs on the board in the second game, collecting only three hits in six innings on singles by Williamson, Kylie Hyde, and Alyssa Beltran as Danville won in six innings.

The Jaguars scored two runs in the first and third innings and had a four-run inning in the sixth.  Pitcher Amber Lee had one strikeout in the game, while the Cougars committed three errors.

Pitching
Amber Lee | 5.2 IP, 7 H, 8 R, 5 ER, 1 K

Next up:  ICC, now 20-14 overall and 13-7 in Region 24 play, will host Spoon River in a doubleheader on Friday, April 21 at 2pm at Thome Field.