East Peoria, Ill. - The Illinois Central College softball team used a late rally to score a 5-3 win in Game 1 over Southeastern Iowa on Saturday at Thome Field and then dropped the nightcap 5-2.  It was Alumni Day for the Cougars who had several former players and families in attendance, as the Cougars' record is now 16-14 ahead of a Monday double-header at #1 Parkland.

GAME 1:  ILLINOIS CENTRAL 5, SOUTHEASTERN IOWA 3

The Black Hawks opened the game with a three-run homer in the top of the first but pitchers Hanna Evans and Addison Church combined to keep SCC off the board the rest of the way, holding Southeastern to just four hits.

Offensively, the Cougars threatened in the bottom of the second as they loaded the bases with walks to Nirvanna Oredina and Reagan Linder and a base hit by Graci Guenther, but SCC got three straight outs to kep the lead at 3-0. 

ICC again loaded the bases in the bottom of the third as Marlee Brown had a two-out single, Oredina was hit by a pitch and Linder singled. Guenther came up with the clutch base hit to left field to score Brown to cut the deficit to 3-1. 

SCC led off the fifth with a single but Church fielded a comebacker and threw to Oredina, who stepped on second and tossed to Brown at first for the double play to keep Southeastern at bay.  

Oredina hit a line drive just inside fair territory for a one-out double and then Linder bounced a hard liner past the third baseman for another double, scoring Oredina and chasing the starting pitcher.  Guenther greeted the new Black Hawk pitcher with a ground out to the second baseman to score Linder to put ICC up 3-2.

Courtney Campbell got a rally started in the bottom of the sixth with a lead-off walk and advanced to third on a single from Gracie White.  Marley Williamson then singled to right to score Campbell and White tagged up on a lineout by Shylar Boze for the final scoring.  

Church pitched three-up, three-down in the seventh inning to get the win.  

GAME 1 HITTING
Reagan Linder | 2-2, RBI,  double
Graci Guenther | 2-3, 2 RBI
Nivarra Oredina | 1-2, double

GAME 1 PITCHING
Hanna Evans | 3 IP, 4K
Addison Church | 4 IP, 2 K

GAME 2:  SOUTHEASTERN IOWA 5, ILLINOIS CENTRAL 2
ICC had two home runs in the second game, but unfortunately they were solo shots while SCC had nine total hits to go along with four Coguar errors to get the win.  

SCC took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third on a walk and a single, but Gracie White answered with a solo home run to straight-out center field to make the score 1-1.   

Southeastern added another run in the top of the fourth on a triple and an error.  The guests got two more tallies in the top of the sixth on a two-run homer, and one run in the seventh on a walk, double, and error to increase their lead to 5-1.  

Zoe Eeten had a solo home run to the left field in the bottom of the seventh, but that was the only run ICC could muster.   

On the mound, Broghan Hall pitched the first three innings and was replaced by Marlee Brown, who took the loss. 

COUGAR HITTING
Gracie White | 1-4, home run
Zoe Eeten | 1-3, home run

COUGAR PITCHING
Broghan Hall | 3 IP
Marlee Brown | 4 IP, 3 K

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE COUGARS
Monday, April 22 at 3:00 pm (DH)
at #1 Parkland, Champaign, IL