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For Immediate Releaseeureka, illinois
April 27, 2008
Red Devils get close, fall short of playoff spot on Senior Day
EUREKA — Timing can mean everything. As the Eureka College softball team and its fans unfortunately found out Saturday, so can bad timing.
The Red Devils carried their SLIAC Post Season Tournament hopes into the final day of league play this season, but fate chose a poor time to deal them a bad hand as they fell short in both ends of a home softball doubleheader to Blackburn College by scores of 10-2 and 4-2. Eureka needed a pair of wins on Senior Day to clinch a spot in the field, but instead it will be Blackburn making its second consecutive trip to the post season.
The Red Devils have been solid, if not spectacular, defensively this season, having been charged with zero or one error in 16 of its 28 games on the season coming into play versus Blackburn. But, they made four miscues in the opener and three in game two.
Game one saw the Red Devils (15-15, 6-8 SLIAC) get their lead off hitter on base five out of seven attempts, but go 0-for-15 with runners on base. Blackburn (12-11, 9-5 SLIAC), which was playing its eighth game in six days, received a superb pitching performance from Aubrey Watson. She limited EC to two unearned runs on three hits and three walks.
Blackburn held a slim 1-0 lead after two innings, but things uncharacteristically unraveled for Eureka in the third as Blackburn tallied four runs on two hits and three errors to take a 5-0 advantage. It was an untimely defensive lapse for the Red Devils, who entered the game with a .959 fielding percentage, which would rank as the highest for a season in program history. The Red Devils were able to turn the first of their three double plays on the day as Molly Wolber (Rock Falls, Ill./HS) caught a ball in right center field and doubled a runner off first base to limit the damage.
Trailing 8-0 entering the bottom of the sixth, EC needed to score just to prolong the game, and they did just that. Brittany Gardner (Mooresville, Ind./HS) led off with a solid single to left and then scored from first as a wild throw to second from the shortstop bounced into right field. Cathy Kalnicky (Bolingbrook, Ill./Plainfield) made it to third on the same play and later scored on a wild pitch, deftly avoiding the tag by the pitcher in the process.
The Red Devils have been shutout just once this season with one game remaining. That would be the fewest shutouts in a season this decade.
Blackburn added two runs in the top of the seventh to finish the scoring. The visitors recorded 10 hits and stranded just three runners on base, while Eureka stranded six. Jill Doty (Metamora, Ill./HS) had two of the Eureka's three hits in the game.
Game two began on a much different note as Eureka starting pitcher Kelsey Brandt (Morton, Ill./HS) silenced the Blackburn attack through the first three frames allowing the Red Devils to take their first lead of the day.
One of five Eureka seniors playing their final home game, Emily Forbes (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) lead of the second inning with a single. Fellow senior Brandi Payne (Eureka, Ill./HS) dropped down a sacrifice bunt and as Forbes was attempting to go to third base on the play, the throw got away allowing her to race home with the game's first run.
Blackburn tied the game in the fourth in similar fashion as a throw to third bounced away to send the tying run to the plate only to see Red Devils quickly gain the upper hand again in the fifth. Wolber, Kalnicky and Natalie Lardi (S. Wilmington, Ill./Gardner-S. Wilmington) all singled to load the bases with one out setting up a sacrifice fly by Doty.
The 2-1 margin for Eureka would be short lived, however, as a single and two errors loaded the bases for Blackburn in the bottom of the fifth. The Red Devils nearly turned their fourth double play of the day after a ground ball to third, but after getting the lead runner at home for the second out, the throw to first was not in time. Instead, Ashley Sears lofted a three-run double to left center, her third hit of the game, to give Blackburn its winning margin of 4-2.
Eureka had five of its eight runners left on base in scoring position at the time. Wolber, Kalnicky and Lardi each went 2-for-4 in the game. Brandt allowed only one earned run in over six innings. She struck out three bringing Eureka's team total to 133 strikeouts for the season, just two shy of the single season record of 135 strikeouts set in 2006.
Eureka seniors Forbes, Gardner, Lardi, Payne and Nicole Pitts (Pekin, Ill./HS) were honored prior to the games. The final game of their EC softball careers will be a non-conference match up Tuesday, April 29 at Illinois Wesleyan starting at 7:00 pm.
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For More Information Contact:
Bryan Moore
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