East Peoria, Ill. - The Illinois Central College softball team will open post-season play on Saturday, May 2 as the #3 seed in this weekend's Region 24-B Tournament at Thome Field. The Cougars will play at 5:00 pm against the winner of #4 seed Lincoln Land and #6 seed John Wood.

ICC brings a 28-14 record into the tourney, posting a 3-1 record against Lincoln Land while sweeping John Wood this season. The Loggers have an 18-19-1 overall record while the Blazers are 17-31.

"We're ready for post-season play," coach Heather Doty said. "We feel good about our hitting as we have solid bats up and down the lineup and our pitching is solid. We've had a lot of tough games so that will help us in post-season play."

Doty, assistant coach Kathy Holzhauer, and staff will look to guide the Cougars to the World Series for the second consecutive season. Last year's squad battled through four elimination games in a row to claim the District Title and earn an automatic bid to the World Series. The Cougars have a knack for peaking in the post-season as they have been to the World Series in ten of the last thirteen seasons (excluding the 2020 COVID year). Since taking over the program in 2007, Doty's teams have played in the World Series in 11 of 19 seasons.

This year's lineup posts a .348 team batting average, led by Meadow Terry at .385 and followed by Laila Harris (.350) who is the team leader in hits with 49. Kayleigh Harr and Bailey Herrick have provided clutch hits, with both having tallied over 100 hits apiece in their ICC careers. Samantha Verstraete also packs a punch as she leads the Cougars with 11 home runs and has a .746 slugging percentage. 

Terry has been the main workhorse in the circle, tossing 110 innings with 132 strikeouts, good for a 7.89 strikeouts per seven innings. Herrick provides a formidable second option at 79.1 innings pitched with 5.56 strikeouts per seven innings. 

In addition to games in East Peoria, the "A" side of the Region Tourney will be played this weekend in Danville with #2 Danville, #5 Heartland, and #7 Lewis & Clark vying for that title.   

The winners of the Region 24 A & B Tourneys will advance to the District Tournament on May 8-9 along with #1 seed Parkland (who earned a bye) and the winner of the Region 16 (out of Missouri). Those games will be played in Champaign with the District Champ advancing to the NJCAA Division II World Series on May 18-23 in Spartanburg, SC at Tyger River Park. 

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE COUGARS
REGION 24 - B SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT
Saturday, May 2 - 5:00 pm
vs. winner of the 12 pm game between (4) Lincoln Land vs. (6) John Wood
at Thome Field (1 College Drive, East Peoria, IL)


REGION 24 - B SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE (at Illinois Central College)
Saturday, May 2
2:00 pm - Game 1: (#4) Lincoln Land vs. (#6) John Wood at 12pm 
5:00 pm - Game 2: (#3) Illinois Central vs. Winner of Game 1

Sunday, May 3
11:00 am - Game 3: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2 
  2:00 pm - Game 4: Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 3
30 minutes after conclusion of 2pm game - Game 5: If necessary 
***Winner advances to District Tournament on May 8-9 at Parkland College in Champaign, IL 

Story updated 05.01.26 at 5:19 pm