Sangamon Sun

The Illinois College softball team faced a challenging start to their season, losing both games on the opening day at Plummer Family Park in Edwardsville, Illinois. The team was narrowly defeated by Hope with a score of 5-4 and later fell to the University of Chicago, 9-1.

In the first game against Hope, Illinois College initially took a lead thanks to Cheyenne Anderson's strong performance. Anderson drove in all four runs for her team, hitting a single in the fourth inning and following up with a three-run homer in the sixth inning. Despite this effort, Hope managed to rally with three runs in the top of the seventh inning to secure their victory.

Julia Drake pitched for Illinois College but took the loss after allowing five runs on nine hits. She struck out ten batters and walked only one during her time on the mound.

The second game against Chicago saw Illinois College struggle as their opponents scored consistently across several innings. Chicago put up three runs each in the first, second, and fourth innings. The sole run for Illinois College came from Allison Mortland's single that brought Elysia Hand home in the fifth inning.

Taylor Henry started as pitcher for Illinois College but was replaced by Hannah Crouch after two innings. Mortland stood out offensively once again by collecting two hits out of her team's total of five.

Illinois College will look to bounce back as they continue their series tomorrow facing Webster at 11:00 a.m., followed by Belhaven at 1:00 p.m.