Edwardsville, Ill. - Marley Williamson, Shylar Boze, Kylie Hyde, and Alaina Creamer all had three RBI and Marlee Brown homered as the Illinois Central College softball team swept Lewis & Clark 17-5 and 11-0 at Plummer Family Park Field on Monday.  The Cougar offense was in high gear, pounding out sixteen hits in Game 1 and eleven in Game 2 while Hanna Evans and Broghan Hall handled the pitching duties to get the wins. 

With the regular season now complete, ICC enters the Region 24 Tourney as the #4 seed and will play at #3 Spoon River on Thursday, May 2 at 3pm & 5pm in Canton.

Game 1:  Illinois Central 17, Lewis & Clark 5
ICC broke up a scoreless tie in the top of the third as Kylie Hyde kick-started the offense with a lead-off double to left field.  Williamson had an RBI single to score Hyde and then crossed home plate on a Boze RBI single for a 2-0 lead. 

The Trailblazers scored three runs of their own in the bottom of the third but ICC quickly took the lead back by scoring five in the fourth.  Evans walked, Madi Kessler singled, and Hyde had an RBI base hit for one run.  Kessler scored on an LCCC error and Nivarra Oredina and Boze each singled to bring in two more runs for a 6-3 Cougar lead.  

The lead swelled to 11-3 in the top of the fifth as Kessler singled, Hyde walked, and White singled to load the bases.  Williamson then tagged an 0-1 pitch for an RBI single, White scored on a wild pitch and Oredina hit into a fielder's choice to keep the inning alive.  Boze hit a sacrifice fly to score Williamson and Brown singled in Oredina for the eight-run lead. 

Lewis & Clark added a run in the bottom of the fifth and sixth, but the Cougars tacked on five runs in the seventh for the big win.  Evans pitched 6 2/3 innings, scattering six hits, while striking out six to get the win. 

COUGAR HITTING
Marley Williamson | 3-6, 3 RBI
Shylar Boze | 3-5, 3 RBI
Kylie Hyde | 3-4, double, 3 RBI
Nivarra Oredina, Marlee Brown, Graci Guenther - all with 1 RBI each

COUGAR PITCHING
Hanna Evans | 6.2 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 2 ER, 6 K
Addison Church | 0.1 IP

Game 2:  Illinois Central 11, Lewis & Clark 0
The Cougars put up big innings in the second (5 runs) and third (6 innings) to take the nightcap.   Alyssa Tudor had a lead-off walk and Olivia Strawn hit into a fielder's choice to put runners on first and second.  Creamer had the big hit with a double to right field for a 2-0 lead.  Williamson had an RBI single to right field and Nivarra Oredina smashed an 0-1 pitch to center for a triple followed by a Reagan Linder RBI single for the 5-0 advantage.

In the third, Strawn reached on an error and scored on a Creamer single to right field.  Back-to-back errors by LCCC plated two Cougar runs and then Brown belted a two run homer to left field to make the score 11-0.

Hall got the win, pitching a four-hit shut out with two strikeouts. 

COUGAR HITTING
Alaina Creamer | 2-3, double, 3 RBI
Nivarra Oredina | 2-4, double, triple, RBI
Marlee Brown | 1-3, home run, 2 RBI
Reagan Linder | 3-4, double, 2 RBI

COUGAR PITCHING
Broghan Hall | 5 IP, 4 H, 2 K

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE COUGARS
Region 24 Tourney Quarterfinals
Thursday, May 2 at Spoon River - time TBA
SRC Softball Field, Canton, IL