Red Devils Sail to SLIAC Sweep of MacMurray
EUREKA, Ill. – Kerrigan Dura (Edwards, Ill./Brimfield H.S.) drove in six to extend her all-time Eureka College RBI record to 120, Morgan Osborn (Washington, Ill./Washington H.S.) drilled her seventh career home run to move into seventh place on the Red Devils' all-time list and Kali George (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria H.S.) continued her pursuit of becoming the winningest pitcher in program history with her 43rd career victory, all in the Red Devils' St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference sweep of MacMurray, Wednesday afternoon in Eureka. EC won the opener, 10-2 in five innings, and also rolled to an abbreviated 14-1 win in game two.
The wins improved Eureka to 17-5 overall and 9-3 in the SLIAC for third place in the current league standings. Eureka has won four league contests in a row, a stretch in which the Red Devils have outscored their opponents 41-5. Wednesday's games were Eureka's first at its on-campus facility this season.
Game 1: EC 10, MacMurray 2
Eureka scored 10 times on only five hits, taking advantage of seven MC errors to score in four different innings. Courtney Kurtz (Minooka, Ill./Minooka H.S.) finished the contest with two of the hosts' five hits and Dura totaled three RBI.
Erin Smith (Dunlap, Ill./Dunlap H.S.) pitched a complete game to improve to 8-1 this season. She is the first SLIAC pitcher to win eight games in 2018.
A walk to Krysten Wallace (Bartonville, Ill./Limestone H.S.) followed by a pair of MacMurray errors allowed the Wallace to score the first run of the afternoon in the bottom of the first inning. Kurtz pulled an RBI single down the right-field line later in the frame for a 2-0 cushion and two more MC errors allowed the Red Devils' lead to swell to 4-0.
MacMurray scored twice for a 4-2 deficit thanks to Brooke Allen's two-out, two-run double to right field in the top of the second inning. Eureka got a run back in the bottom of the frame on an RBI from Gabby Wood (Bartonville, Ill./Limestone H.S.).
Eureka put the game further out of reach in the third when two more walks and other error loaded the bases for Dura, who smoked a bases-clearing double into the left-center field gap for an 8-2 lead. The Red Devils ultimately won the game via the eight-run rule in the fifth on Wallace's two-run double that scored Deidra Whightsil (Spring Valley, Ill./Hall H.S.) and Osborn.
Game 2: EC 14, MacMurray 1
Eureka did most of the damage in the nightcap to the tune of 14 runs on 14 hits. Five different Red Devils produced a multi-hit effort, led by a 3-for-3 effort from Kurtz. Dura and Danielle Brittain (Eureka, Ill./Eureka H.S.) compiled three RBI apiece and five different Red Devils scored twice.
George allowed one run on one hit over 3.0 innings to secure her 43rd career victory. She ranks second in Eureka history behind Tina Sharp's 45 wins between 1993 and 1996. George has also thrown 441.2 career innings to near Donita William's Eureka record of 457.1 set between 1989 and 1992. Additionally, George's 219 strikeouts are third-most at Eureka. She joins Williams as the only players in program history to rank among Eureka's all-time top three in each category.
Osborn set the tone for EC in the nightcap, blasting a solo home run to left field to begin the bottom of the first inning. Twelve consecutive batters reached safely to begin the frame, including RBI hits by Dura, Kurtz, George and Brittain, before MacMurray finally escaped the jam down 10-0.
Raven Talashoma hit a solo home run to begin the top of the second inning, the Highlanders' only run of the game. Eureka promptly answered in the bottom of the inning on Brittain's RBI single and a bases-loaded walk to Wallace for a 12-1 cushion.
Wood hit her third collegiate home run to begin the third inning and George later tacked on a run-scoring double into the gap to extend the lead to 14-1. Wood tossed 2.0 scoreless innings of relief in the circle to finish the five-inning victory.
Up Next
Eureka will have approximately 24 hours to prepare for Thursday's non-conference doubleheader at Rose-Hulman at 4:30 p.m. CT in Terre Haute, Ind. The twin bill between the Red Devils and Fightin' Engineers, initially scheduled for Eureka, was rained out three times before being rescheduled for Terre Haute.
