Red Devils Win One, Drop Two on Last Day of Spring Break Trip
NAPLES, Fla. – On the last day of the Eureka softball team's 2024 spring break trip, the Red Devils won one game and lost two.
The maroon and gold fell short against WestConn 4-1 and to Alfred St. 8-5 before finishing the 34th Annual Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic with a 9-3 victory over Lesley on Wednesday.
WestConn 4, Eureka 1
The Red Devils came up short despite outhitting WestConn 10-4 in the first game of the day.
Four players had two hits apiece and six players had at least one, but EC left nine runners on base compared to WestConn's three.
Delaney Douglas (Sugar Grove, Ill./Kaneland) put the Red Devils on the board with an RBI single in the second inning that scored Bria Wessel (Peoria, Ill./Limestone), but WestConn came back with two runs off two hits and an error in the bottom half.
In the fifth, WestConn put two on with back-to-back walks, advanced the runners with a sac bunt and then sent them both home with a two run single by K. Allen in the next at-bat. Eureka left a pair stranded in the sixth and seventh innings after that.
Sophomore pitchers Rachel Dawson (Stanford, Ill./Homeschooled) and Claire Wuethrich (Peoria, Ill./Peoria Christian) each only allowed two runs in three innings of work. The former only conceded one earned run, while the latter allowed two.
Wessel went 2-for-3 and had the Red Devils' only extra-base hit of the game. Douglas, Klaire Morris (Billings, Mont./Billings Skyview) and Kloey Wheeler (Farmington, Ill./Farmington Central/Heartland) each had two hits as well.
Alfred State 8, Eureka 5
In the second game of the day, Alfred St. jumped out to a seven-run lead in the first two innings, putting the Red Devils in an early hole.
Eureka began to chip away at the lead when it scored its first run of the game on a wild pitch that allowed Bre Dixon (Newark, Ill./Newark) to score in the third inning.
In the fourth, the Red Devils got two runs closer after an RBI single by Morris and an RBI double by Thompson.
In the fifth, Wessel drove in another run with an RBI groundout, and in the sixth, Alayla Thornton (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria/Trinity International) scored on another wild pitch that made it a two-run game.
In the last inning of the game, however, Alfred St. tacked on another to make it 8-5. The Red Devils went down in order in their last stand in the bottom half.
Six EC players contributed a hit in a losing effort. Dixon's double was the only extra-base hit of the game.
Wheeler took over for Jeri Bradford (Homewood, Ill./Chicago Christian/Triton) after a rough start to the game in the circle. She went on to notch six strikeouts and only allow one earned run on two hits over the next six innings.
Eureka 9, Lesley 3
The Red Devils got back in the winning column after producing a six-run rally in the sixth inning to break a 3-3 tie and end their spring break trip with a 5-2 record.
First, Wessel, Gada Bryant (Westville, Ill./Westville/Lincoln) and Douglas set the table. Wessel led off with a single. Bryant entered as a pinch runner and stole second before Douglas singled to put runners on the corners. Douglas followed that with a stolen base to put two runners in scoring position for Bri Tanksley (Metamora, Ill./Metamora).
Tanksley proceeded to knock a two-run double to left-center to break the tie. She later scored on a fielding error. Lexi Liptak followed that with a two-run triple to right-center and KayLee Hohlbauch (Arcola, Ill./Arcola/Lincoln) singled to right to give EC a six-run advantage.
Wuethrich put the game away with a strikeout, a pop-up and a groundout in the top of the seventh. She finished with a season-high seven strikeouts in four scoreless innings of relief work. Starting pitcher Kloe Norris only allowed two earned runs on two hits and two walks while fanning four batters in the preceding three innings.
Eureka finished with 12 hits – half of which came in the six-run sixth inning.
The Red Devils plated their first runs in the first innings off an RBI groundout by Hohlbauch, a triple by Mackenzie Daniels (Monticello, Ill./Monticello) and an RBI single to left field by Wessel.
Tanksely scored an unearned run in the second to make it 3-0. Lesley answered with three runs on two hits and an error in the third. The Red Devils made sure that was the visiting team's only rally of the game.
Up Next
After more than a week off of competition, the Red Devils (5-4) will host Mount Mary at Sweitzer Field in a non-conference doubleheader on Saturday, March 23 at 12 p.m.