PENSACOLA, Fla. (March 15, 2013) – Rend Lake College softball wrapped up its spring break trip to Florida today with a shutout sweep of Carl Sandburg College, 3-0 and 5-0. The Lady Warriors finished 5-3 in the Sunshine State’s University of West Florida Spring Fling in Pensacola.
It improved to 5-5 with the sweep today – its fourth straight win. RLC lost two to Lincoln
It improved to 5-5 with the sweep today – its fourth straight win. RLC lost two to Lincoln University (Mo.), 2-1 and 7-2, on Tuesday; split with Black Hawk College, 1-0 and 8-2, on Wednesday; and swept Southeastern Illinois College, 6-3 and 7-3, yesterday. The 1-0 win over Black Hawk was in walk-off fashion and was the highlight of the trip, according to Head Coach Dave Ellingsworth. Taylor Cheek (Pinckneyville, Ill.) hit a two-out single to score Molly Whaley (Benton, Ill.) who had walked earlier in the inning.
Fellow Benton native Amanda Holloway threw the first shutout against Carl Sandburg today. Holloway threw all seven innings – striking out three, walking three, and giving up five hits. She finished 3-1 at the Spring Fling.
In the second game, it was Erica Wilson (O’Fallon, Ill.) getting the shutout win. She also went all seven innings. Wilson struck out one, walked three and gave up three hits.
Hitting was spread around the lineup in both games today, according to Ellingsworth. Besides freshman Fallon Clayton (Anna, Ill.) at the lead-off spot, Ellingsworth has been experimenting with his lineup. Three players have hit cleanup so far – Breanne Pelker (Nashville, Ill.), Whaley and Taylor Thomas (Arcola, Ill.).
“That’s one thing good about this whole trip. Everybody contributed,” said Ellingsworth.
Thomas strained a quad against Black Hawk. Ellingsworth is hoping she will be out for only about a week.
“She was walking on it pretty good today, but walking on it and playing on it are two different things,” he said.
In three of its last four wins, Rend Lake has scored all or most of its runs in one inning.
“We would have runners on base but we just couldn’t drive them in. I don’t really like that, but we are scoring a lot of runs, so you kind of have to like it. I told them, you have to have that killer instinct where you just jump on them.”
RLC’s next opportunity is Tuesday, at home, against Kaskaskia College. The first pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. For all things athletic at The Lake, visit RLC online at www.rlc.edu.
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