East Peoria, Ill. - The Illinois Central College softball team will open post-season play on Saturday, May 3 as the #2 seed in this weekend's Region 24-B Tournament at Thome Field. The Cougars will play at 3:00 pm against the winner of #3 seed Danville vs. #5 seed Heartland. 

The Cougars have a 27-20 record and are battle-tested with nearly half of their regular season games (23) having been played against ranked DII opponents or DI junior colleges. ICC has played well the second half of the season and is currently on a five-game winning streak, going 19-5 in Region play. They swept their series against Heartland by scores of 8-7, 10-6, 9-0, and 7-3 and split with Danville, winning 12-7 and 5-1 while losing 4-3 and 5-3.

Danville posted an 18-6 Region record while Heartland went 11-13. Those two teams split in the regular season with Heartland winning 15-12, 8-6 in Normal while DACC prevailed 14-13, 3-1 at home. 

"We are ready to go," coach Heather Doty said. "This group has stuck together through a very challenging early schedule but that strengthened us as a unit. We've got a lot of strong hitters to go along with solid pitching so we like where we're at going into post-season." 

Doty and assistant coach Kathy Holzhauer have a knack at getting the Cougars to peak in the post-season as ICC has been to the World Series nine of the last twelve seasons (excluding the 2020 COVID year). Since the coaching duo took over the program in 2007, the Cougars have played in the World Series in 10 of 18 seasons.

This year's lineup has several quality hitters as the Cougars have a .356 team batting average  Sophomore shortstop Nivarra Oredina is the team-leader in several categories, including batting average (.478), RBI (36), and home runs (10). Freshman Cassidee Bauer is second in RBI with 34, while Bailey Herrick has 33 RBI at a .374 clip while smacking 7 home runs and 15 doubles. Kayleigh Harr (.422) and Kelsey Bartels (.411) have also been consistent from the plate for Doty's squad.

ICC has used the 1-2 punch of Broghan Hall and Emily Compton on the mound for much of the season, with each working 110 innings on the season. Hall has a 3.23 ERA and an 8.82 strikeouts per nine innings, while Compton is close behind at a 3.69 ERA and 8.02 strikeouts per nine innings.

In addition to games in East Peoria, the "A" side of the Region Tourney will be played in Champaign with #1 Parkland, #4 Lincoln Land, and #6 Lewis & Clark.  

The winners of Region 24 A & B Tourneys will advance to the District Semifinal to play teams from Region 16 on May 10-11 (site TBD). The District Champion will then advance to the NJCAA Division II World Series on May 20-25 at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, AL. 

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE COUGARS
REGION 24 - B SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT
Saturday, May 3 - 3:00 pm
vs. Winner of Danville vs. Heartland
at Thome Field, East Peoria, IL (1 College Drive, East Peoria, IL)
Watch Live: https://www.awre.tv/signup?next=/channel/t83621
Live Stats (GameChanger; "Illinois Central College 2025")

REGION 24 - B SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT at Illinois Central College
Saturday, May 3
Game 1: (#3) Danville vs. (#5) Heartland at 12pm 
Game 2: (#2) Illinois Central vs. Winner of Game 1 at 3pm

Sunday, May 4
Game 3: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2 at 11am
Game 4: Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 3 at 2pm
Game 5: If necessary (30 min after conclusion of Game 4)

CLICK HERE for a full bracket.