Eureka Softball Earns Second Road Split with Spalding

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – On Sunday, the Eureka softball team earned a road split over Spalding for the second day in a row.

After opening St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference season with a doubleheader split in league play on Saturday, the Red Devils bested the Golden Eagles 8-2 in Game 1 and fell short 10-7 in Game 2.

Game 1: Eureka 8, Spalding 2

Eureka racked up eight runs on 12 hits to pick up a win to start its last day in Louisville.

Raelyn Payne (Lexington, Ill./Lexington) went 2-for-4 with a 3 RBIs and a leadoff home run to start the game. It was her first dinger of the season. Jordan Heinz (Washington, Ill./Washington), Morgan Ledbetter (Hanna City, Ill./Elmwood)) and Torre Koontz (Lakewood, Ill./Shelbyville) all had two hits as well .

Payne's leadoff shot started a four-run first inning that included an unearned run on a throwing error, an RBI fielder's choice by Remi Ferguson (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria) and an RBI single by Koontz.

Spalding got two back in the second inning, but the Red Devils put together another four-run rally in the fifth. Koontz and Kennedy Savage (Bloomington, Ill./Normal) each had RBI singles, and Payne singled to drive in two.

Bailey Tibbetts (Pekin, Ill./Pekin) earned the win in the circle after limiting Spalding to two runs on five hits and three walks in five innings. She had one strikeout, and Sidney Wightman (Waterloo, Ill./ Gibault Catholic) threw two scoreless innings in relief.

Game 2: Spalding 10, Eureka 7

In Game 2, both teams came out swinging and putting runs on the board.

Ledbetter launched her first home run of the spring in the first inning to give Eureka an early 3-0 lead, but Spalding answered with a four-run rally in the bottom half.

Eureka put three more on five hits in the second, with Aubrey Sanders (Paris, Ill./Paris) singling with one out to start it off, Payne doubling and Heinz singling through the right side to plate the first run. After that, Allison Cagley (Fairbury, Ill./Prairie Central) singled up the middle and drove in two more.

Spalding got one back to make it 6-5 in the bottom of the seventh and Savage's RBI single in the third gave EC a two-run lead.

Once again, Spalding answered with two runs in the bottom half to keep the pattern going. But in the fourth, Eureka came up empty and Spalding put three more runs on the board.

Neither team scored after that, resulting in a 10-7 win for the Golden Eagles.

Heinz, Tibbetts and Ledbetter all had multi-hit games for the Red Devils.

Coming Up

Eureka (2-4, 1-1 SLIAC) will host Rockford in non-conference doubleheader for a noon doubleheader on Tuesday. It will be the team's first home games at Sweitzer Field since the 2019 team clinched the SLIAC title on April 28, 2019.