Champaign, Ill. - The Illinois Central College softball team stayed alive in the Region 24 tournament and will get a chance for revenge on Tuesday.  The Cougars lost a 3-2 heartbreaker in eleven innings to Danville Area early Saturday afternoon but bounced back to defeat Spoon River 7-4 on Saturday evening.  ICC and Danville will clash again on Tuesday in Champaign, with the winner advancing to the championship game to play Parkland.

"We loved the fight of our team today and the way we responded after a tough loss in the first game," coach Heather Doty said.  "We lived to see another day and will be ready to go Tuesday." 

Game 1:  Danville 3, ICC 2 (11 innings)
Kiersten Manning's pitching was "on point" from the start, as she struck out eight Jaguars in the first five innings and did not allow a baserunner until the sixth inning on a harmless double.

Offensively, the Cougars couldn't get much going either other than singles in the second (Savanah Clifton), third (Kylie Hyde), and fifth (Marley Williamson).  That changed in the bottom of the sixth when Olivia Drish hit a two-out solo home run to center field giving ICC a 1-0 lead.

Danville evened up the score at 1-all with a leadoff homer to start the seventh and then hit another solo home run to go up 2-1.  Shylar Boze answered with a leadoff blast of her own in the seventh to knot the score at 2-2 to send the game into extra innings. 

Neither team scored in the eighth and the international rule went into effect in the ninth, but neither team could push a run across until the eleventh when DACC used two sacrifice bunts to score the runner from second.  ICC could not score in the bottom half as DACC took the win.

Hitting
Drish | 1-5, home run, RBI
Boze | 1-4, home run, RBI

Pitching
Manning | 11 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 13 K

Game 2:  ICC 7, Spoon River 4
Boze gave ICC a 1-0 lead when she homered in the second.  However, SRC scored a run in the bottom of the second and the third innings to go up 2-1.  ICC tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the fourth on back-to-back doubles by Williamson and Manning.  The Snappers added two runs in the bottom of the fourth to grab the lead back at 4-2.

ICC responded with four runs in the sixth to take control of the game thanks to a Clifton three-run home run to right field scoring Williamson (who had reached on an error and Drish who had doubled) to put the Cougars ahead 5-4.  Brooke Cordray then launched an 0-2 pitch over the left field fence as ICC went ahead 6-4.  ICC added an insurance run in the seventh on a Williamson RBI single for the final margin.

Hitting
Clifton | 1-4, home run, 3 RBI
Williamson | 2-4, double, RBI
Drish | 2-4, double
Manning | 1-4, double, RBI
Boze | 1-3, home run, RBI
Cordray | 2-2, home run, RBI
  
Pitching
Manning | 3 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 7 K
Drish | 4 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER

May 6 scores
Game 1:  Parkland 8, Spoon River 1
Game 2:  Danville 3, ICC 2 (11 innings)
Game 3:  Parkland 15, Danville 10
Game 4:  ICC 7, Spoon River 4

Tuesday, May 9 schedule
Game 5:  ICC vs. Danville at 12:00 pm
Game 6:  Parkland vs. Winner of Game 6 at 2:15 pm
Game 7:  If necessary at 4:30 pm