Red Devils Notch Senior Day Split with Westminster
EUREKA – The Eureka softball team pulled out a 7-3 win to secure a Senior-Day split against Westminster on a warm, windy Saturday at Sweitzer Field.
The Blue Jays came out on top, 17-9, in a high-scoring opening game.
Between the two games, senior shortstop Raelyn Payne (Lexington, Ill./Lexington) went 5-for-7 at the plate with a pair of RBIs, five RBI, four runs scored and five stolen bases.
Senior pitcher Sidney Wightman (Waterloo, Ill./Gibault Catholic) bounced back from a rocky first outing and guided the Red Devils to the win in Game 2, holding Westminster to two earned runs on 10 hits and zero walks and seven innings.
Game 1: Westminster 17, Eureka 9
The Blue Jays got the best of Eureka's pitching in Game 1, racking up 17 runs on 22 hits.
Payne scored an unearned run in the bottom of the first inning to make it 1-1, but the visitors responded with 11 runs on 10 hits and two EC errors in the bottom half
The Red Devils scratched across another unearned run in the third, then Westminster came back with two more to threaten to end it by rule-rule.
However, the maroon and gold produced four runs in the fourth to keep it going. With the bases loaded, Payne delivered a bases-clearing double, two batters later, Kate LeMasters (Metamora, Ill./Metamora) capitalized on a Westminster overthrow to score again.
A sac fly RBI by Delaney Douglas (Sugar Grove, Ill./Kaneland) in the fifth made it 14-7 and a two-run blast by Bria Wessel – her third homer of the year – made it a five-run game.
Westminster rallied last, though, driving in three more runs in the seventh to cap it.
Payne finished 2-for-3 with 3 RBI, two runs scored, a double, a walk and three stolen bases. Wessel went 2-for-4 with the home run, three RBI and two runs scored. Tressa Grisham (Morton, Ill./East Peoria) posted two stolen bases.
Game 2: Eureka 7, Westminster 3
In Game 2, Eureka was the one threatening to end the game early. The Red Devils plated six runs in the first three innings and led 7-1 after five.
Westminster picked up two more runs in the sixth and got runners to the corners in the seventh, but Wightman got a line-out to center field to secure the victory.
Payne scored the Red Devils' first run following an overthrow in the first. She came up big the following inning as well when she drove in two with a double to left-center.
LeMasters, a freshman, followed that with her second home run of her career – a two-run dinger that made it 5-0.
Douglas made it 6-0 with an unearned run following a fielding error in the third. She also drove in the team's last run of the game with an RBI groundout in the fifth.
Payne went 3-for-4 with two RBI, two runs scored and two more stolen bases.
In addition to LeMasters' homer, Douglas had a double, and Elly Maier (Clinton, Ill./Clinton) and Abby Newmister (Bloomington, Ill./Bloomington Central Catholic) each contributed a key hit as well,
Up Next
The Red Devils (12-19, 7-7 St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) will be back at Sweitzer Field on Tuesday for a pivotal league doubleheader against Blackburn (11-11, 4-6 SLIAC). First pitch is set for 3 p.m.
