Red Devils Split With Webster

EUREKA – The Eureka softball team earned a split with Webster at Sweitzer Field on Saturday afternoon.

The Red Devils took down the Gorloks 5-3 in the first game. The visitors came back and took Game 2 18-5.

Raelyn Payne (Lexington, Ill./Lexington) recorded her 28th stolen base of the season, setting the Red Devils' single-season program record. She also moved into third place in program history with 38 in her career.

Game 1: Eureka 5, Wester 3

Eureka tallied five runs on nine hits and took advantage of four Webster errors to seize a St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win.

The Red Devils scored five of the first six runs of the game, and once the Gorloks made things interesting late, they held them off to secure it.

EC took a 1-0 lead in the first inning after Bria Wessel (Peoria, Ill./Limestone) drove in an unearned run in the first inning.

Webster evened the score on a wild pitch in the third, and the Red Devils answered with a three-run rally in the bottom half. The home team put up three runs on five hits, with Kate LeMasters (Metamora, Ill./Metamora) and Tressa Grisham (Morton, Ill./East Peoria) each driving in one and a Mackenzie Daniels (Monticello, Ill./Monticello) sac fly RBI making it 4-1.

The following inning, Wessel walked with the bases loaded to extend the lead to four runs.

Webster scored two runs in the sixth to make it a two-run game, but pitcher Sidney Wightman (Waterloo, Ill./Gibault Catholic) and the Red Devils were able to strand two runners to get out of it.

Then, in the seventh, they retired three of four batters to clinch it.

Wightman, a senior, claimed her fifth win of the season, holding the Gorloks to three runs on six hits and two walks in seven innings. The Red Devil defense didn't commit a single error and came up with several clutch defensive plays.

Payne and Wessel each contributed a double and a single, while Grisham added singles.

Game 2: Webster 18, Eureka 5

Eureka led Game 2 early, posting two runs on a two-run single up the middle by Bria Wessel in the bottom of the first to make it 2-1.

But the Gorloks tied the game in third and took over in the fourth. The visitors racked up six runs in the fourth and outscored the home team 16-3 the rest of the way.

Webster held Eureka to five runs on six hits and two walks.