East Peoria, Ill. - The Illinois Central College softball team has earned the #2 seed in this week's Region 24 Tournament and will host #7 Lewis & Clark on Tuesday, May 2 at Thome Field at 3pm in quarterfinal action. Tuesday's games will be a double-header in the best 2 of 3 series with the third game (if necessary) scheduled for Thursday, May 4 at Thome Field.
"Our team has overcome a lot of adversity this season but we are coming together at the right time," coach Heather Doty said. "We've developed a 'next player up' mentality which has built a lot of confidence that will help us this week."
Doty and assistant coach Kathy Holzhauer have a knack at getting the Cougars to peak in the post-season as ICC has been to Nationals nine of the last ten seasons (excluding the 2020 COVID year). Since the coaching duo took over the program in 2007, the Cougars have gone to Nationals ten of sixteen seasons.
The Cougars bring in a 25-15 overall record to go along with their 17-7 mark in Region 24 regular season play. As a team, ICC has a .304 batting average with
Kiersten Manning and
Shylar Boze sharing the team-lead batting average at .386. Manning has a .440 on-base percentage and .833 slugging percentage while leading the team with 14 home runs, including 31 RBI (2nd on team). Boze has been solid at the hot corner defensively and has hit five homers in her freshman campaign, while
Olivia Drish leads the team with 33 RBI and 11 home runs (2nd on team).
Manning, the 2022 Region 24 Player of the Year, has thrown well in the circle with a 2.57 ERA in 109 innings. She has a 9-5 overall record while posting 165 strikeouts for an impressive 10.6 strikeouts per seven innings average. Drish has also been solid down the stretch in the circle, pitching 111 innings with a 5.42 strikeouts per seven innings average.
Lewis and Clark has a 14-27-1 overall record and a 4-20 mark in Region 24. ICC won all four games in the series as the teams met last week (April 26) in Godfrey as ICC prevailed 2-0, 12-1. The Cougars also won in East Peoria (April 4) by scores of 8-0, 7-3.
2023 Region 24 Softball Tournament Quarterfinal Pairings (region records in parenthesis)
#1 Parkland (23-1) - bye
#7 Lewis & Clark (4-20) at #2 Illinois Central (17-7) on Tuesday, May 2 at 3pm at Thome Field
#6 Heartland (5-19) at #3 Danville (17-7)
#5 Lincoln Land (5-19) at #4 Spoon River (13-11)
The winners will advance to this weekend's Region 24 Final Four with games being played at Parkland College in Champaign on May 6-7 in a double elimination format.
