Red Devils Put Up Numbers in Sweep at Principia
ELSAH, Ill. – The Eureka softball team opened St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play on Tuesday by swiftly outscoring Principia 26-0 en route to a road sweep.
The Red Devils topped the Panthers 7-0 in Game 1, then raced to a 19-0 win in five innings in Game 2.
The opener marked the Red Devils' seventh straight time they opened SLIAC play with a win. The nightcap was Eureka's largest margin of victory since March 9, 2020, when it hammered Holy Family 21-0 at the Fastpitch Dreams Spring Classic – and its biggest win in SLIAC play since blowing away Principia 21-0 on April 1, 2017.
The pair of wins following Sunday's 10-6 triumph over Mount Mary gave the Red Devils their longest win streak since opening the 2020 season with five Ws in a row.
Game 1: Eureka 7, Principia 0
Christine Mepham (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) recorded her first career win in the circle, holding Principia scoreless on five hits in seven innings. She didn't concede any walks and tallied a career-high four strikeouts.
The Red Devils didn't dominate at the plate like they did in the second game, but they still posted seven runs on 11 hits, with Kate LeMasters' (Metamora, Ill./Metamora) memorable first career home run leading the team's highlights.
In the third inning, LeMasters mashed one to the gap in left-center and raced around the bases as the ball rolled to the fence and the Panthers scrambled to get the ball to the infield. By the time it was close to her, she was crossing the plate for an inside-the-park home run that made it 3-0.
Eureka's first runs came in the top of the first inning. An RBI triple by Raelyn Payne (Lexington, Ill./Lexington) scored Tressa Grisham (Morton, Ill./East Peoria), who led off with a single, to put the visitors on the board. In the next at-bat, Mackenzie Daniels (Monticello, Ill./Monticello) singled to left to bring home Payne.
In the fourth, the Red Devils scratched across three runs on an RBI groundout by Sidney Wightman (Waterloo, Ill./Gibault Catholic), a wild pitch that allowed Mepham to score and an RBI single by Payne.
A Daniels RBI groundout in the fifth gave EC its last run of the game.
Payne finished 2-for-4 with a triple and a pair of RBI. Wightman went 2-for-4 with an RBI and Grisham contributed two hits, as well.
LeMasters swiped a team-high three bases. Daniels and Bria Wessel (Peoria, Ill./Limestone) each stole two. The team recorded a season-high 11 bases on the game.
Game 2: Eureka 19, Principia 0
In the second game of the night, the Red Devils racked up 16 hits and only gave up one. They scored in bunches, stringing together three straight innings of putting up four runs or more.
The Red Devils bats came alive with a nine-run first inning. The team did it with just three hits, an error and seven walks.
They followed that with four runs off three hits, one error and one walk in the second, and six runs off five hits and two errors in the third.
The Red Devils stole 18 bases along the way, destroying their previous season-high mark of 11.
A pair of unlikely sources led the way at the plate.
Sophomore Abby Newmister (Bloomington, Ill./Bloomington Central Catholic) recorded her first career hit, produced an RBI triple in the second inning and finished the game 3-for-3 with a pair of RBIs and stole a pair of bases.
Fellow sophomore and No. 9 hitter Elly Maier (Clinton, Ill./Clinton) went 3-for-3 with an RBI and three stolen bases.
LeMasters went 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles and drove in a team-high three runs. Grisham, Delaney Douglas (Sugar Grove, Ill./Kaneland) and Mepham all had two hits as well. Payne, Daniels and Douglas each recorded a double.
In addition to Mair, Grisham, Daniels and Mepham all swiped three bases. Payne had two stolen bases and LeMasters and Douglas each had one.
Grisham recorded the win in the circle in her pitching debut after only allowing one hit and two walks in four innings of work. She had two strikeouts before handing the ball over to Wightman to finish it off. Wightman struck out all three batters she faced to officially end it.
Up Next
The Red Devils (4-9, 2-0 SLIAC) will look to keep it going on Wednesday when they head back on the road to take on Knox (1-10) in a non-conference doubleheader at 3 p.m.