The Illinois Central College softball team enters post-season play as the #4 seed in the Region 24 Tournament and will travel to Canton to play #3 Spoon River on Thursday, May 2.  Thursday's games will be a double-header in the best 2 of 3 series with the third game (if necessary) scheduled for Friday, May 3.

"We're excited about the fresh start that the post-season provides," coach Heather Doty said.  "We've had several close games and know that we can play with anyone.  This team will be ready for the challenge." 

Doty and assistant coach Kathy Holzhauer have a knack of getting the Cougars to peak in the post-season as ICC has been to the World Series nine of the last eleven seasons (excluding the 2020 COVID year) and a total of eleven times since the duo took over the program in 2007.

While the Cougar softball program historically has had much success, this year's post-season path has an extra hurdle in getting to the World Series.  In previous years, the Region 24 champion was automatically sent to the CWS while the runner-up had a chance to earn a trip by winning districts. This season will be different as Region 24 will now have their top three teams along with the Top Region 16 team play in a district tournament for the single automatic bid to Spartanburg, SC.  Once region and district tourneys are complete, four at-large bids will also be selected to complete the World Series field.  

The Cougars have a 22-20 overall record to go along with their 15-13 mark in Region 24 regular season play.  As a team, ICC has a .340 batting average with sophomore third baseman Shylar Boze hitting .416.   Boze has a .452 on-base percentage and a team-high 44 RBI while center-fielder Marley Williamson leads the team with 57 hits while batting .393.   Freshman shortstop Nivarra Oredina leads the team with nine homers and 30 RBI (2nd on team).

Hanna Evans and Broghan Hall have handled most of the pitching duties for the Cougars, with Evans tossing 111 innings and Hall 88.  Evans has struck out 118 batters with 7.44 strikeouts/7 innings and an overall ERA of 4.16 while Hall has a 4.18 ERA.  

Spoon River has a 40-18 overall record and a 20-8 mark in Region 24.  The Snappers have narrowly won all four games in the series as the teams met last week (April 24) in Canton, winning 4-2 and 3-2.  SRC also won in East Peoria (April 15) by scores of 5-1 (in 9 innings) and 3-2.   
 

2024 Region 24 Softball Tournament Pairings - each are a best of 3 series #6 Lincoln Land (14-32) at  #1 Parkland (52-4)   #5 Heartland (27-27) at  #2 Danville (31-13) #4 Illinois Central (22-20) at #3 Spoon River (40-18) on Thursday, May 2 at SRC Softball Field (Canton, IL) at 3pm & 5pm ***The three Region 24 winners will be combined with the Region 16 winner and advance to the Central District Tournament on May 10-11 (played at the highest remaining Region 24 seed).  The winner will earn the automatic bid to the NJCAA DII World Series in Spartanburg, SC on May 20-25.