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Anna Beckman trotting home after a homer
Kodiak Creative
3
Bethany Lutheran BLC 28-14
6
Winner Ill. Wesleyan IWU 35-7
Bethany Lutheran BLC
28-14
3
Final
6
Ill. Wesleyan IWU
35-7
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Bethany Lutheran BLC 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 3 5 0
Ill. Wesleyan IWU 0 1 0 0 0 5 X 6 8 1

W: Certa, Gianna (17-2) L: Meyer (21-11)

Game Recap: Softball |

Softball’s Big Sixth Inning Boosts Titans to Win Over BLC

Titans to play tomorrow, May 16, at 11 a.m.

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The 20th-ranked Illinois Wesleyan University softball team rallied behind a five-run sixth-inning to down Bethany Lutheran College, 6-3, in the opening game of the NCAA Division III Bloomington Regional Thursday morning, May 15. The Titans (35-7) advance to tomorrow's first game to face either Greenville University or Nebraska Wesleyan University at 11 a.m. BLC will play in the 1:30 p.m. elimination game.

Sophomore Mallory Holland (Shelbyville, Ill.-Shelbyville) worked around a one-out single in the Vikings' first trip to bat, recovering to retire the first three batters she faced. Holland rang up a batter with a runner on first and junior Claire Post (Normal, Ill.-Normal West) completed a double play with a throw down to second, where senior Jen Kuhn (Normal, Ill.-University High) applied the tag to end the inning.

The Titan bats were slow to get going, as the first four hitters went down on strikes, but junior Anna Beckman (Bourbonnais, Ill.-Bishop McNamara) sparked the Green and White in the second. Stepping up to the plate with two down, Beckman took a first-pitch offering out and over the fence in left for her second homer of the season to push IWU ahead, 1-0. Freshman Ella Hermes (Peru, Ill.-Saint Bede Academy) and Post followed with back-to-back walks, but the two-rally stalled there.

Miscues by the Titans opened the door for Bethany Lutheran in the fourth. A double dropped in short left and the Vikings quickly loaded the bases with one out. A high chopper was snatched, but an errant throw brought two runs across the plate to give BLC its first lead of the game. The Vikings tacked on a one-run single, but Holland stranded two in scoring position with a strikeout.

Trailing 3-1 into the sixth, the Green and White bats went to work. After getting called for a strike on a check swing, Kuhn whacked a homer out to left to cut the deficit to one, 3-2. Senior Ava Khoury (Columbia, Ill.-Columbia) followed with a single and junior Casey Wissmiller (Bloomington, Ill.-Olympia) hit a two-run shot out to the student crowd in left field to catapult IWU ahead, 4-3. The Titans added key insurance runs as Post recorded an RBI single and Kuhn drew a bases loaded walk to make the score, 6-3, in favor of the Green and White.

Junior Gianna Certa (Third Lake, Ill.-Grayslake North), who entered in relief earlier in the game, slammed the door shut with a 1-2-3 seventh. Certa snagged the win with her three-inning relief appearance, moving to 17-2 on the season. The junior dazzled, striking out two without allowing a hit. 

Offensively, Illinois Wesleyan churned out eight hits with a majority coming in the late innings. Beckman and Post registered two hits apiece. A sparkplug for the Titan offense, Beckman went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI, while Post finished 2-for-2 with a run and one driven in. Kuhn and Wissmiller tallied two RBIs apiece in 1-for-3 efforts. 

Illinois Wesleyan advances in the winner's bracket to play the winner of the Greenville-Nebraska Wesleyan game, tomorrow, May 16, at 11 a.m. Bethany Lutheran and the loser will meet at 1:30 p.m.

 
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