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Western Illinois University Athletics

Bella
Sarah Ritter
9
Winner Western Illinois WIU 6-6
6
LINDENWOOD LWU 3-10
Winner
Western Illinois WIU
6-6
9
Final
6
LINDENWOOD LWU
3-10
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R H E
Western Illinois WIU 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 3 9 15 2
LINDENWOOD LWU 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 1 2 0 6 8 1

W: Price, Emily (3-2) L: Keighlan (1-3)

9
Western Illinois WIU 6-7
13
Winner LINDENWOOD LWU 4-10
Western Illinois WIU
6-7
9
Final
13
LINDENWOOD LWU
4-10
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Western Illinois WIU 0 0 0 3 0 3 3 9 10 3
LINDENWOOD LWU 4 0 0 5 1 3 X 13 14 0

W: Molly (1-0) L: Rodriguez, Savannah (3-4) S: Keighlan (1)

Game Recap: Softball | | WIU Athletic Communications

Leatherneck Softball Splits Doubleheader

Western Illinois finishes the Lindenwood Invite with two victories; the team will face Bradley and Wichita State next weekend.

ST. CHARLES, Mo. - Western Illinois softball played its second day of the 2023 Lindenwood Invite on Sunday (Feb. 26), splitting a doubleheader against the Lindenwood Lions. With the result, Western Illinois moves to 6-7 on the young season with a tournament next weekend scheduled at Wichita State.
 
"I was really proud of our offense all weekend. We made some great in-game adjustments and found a lot of barrels. We also had clutch pinch hitting again," head coach Alisa Goler said. "Kathryn McChristy deserves some special recognition for her innings too - it's really special to have three arms who give you a shot in any game."
 
Game 1: Leathernecks 9, Lions 6
Game one was a back-and-forth affair right from the start, all started by Bella Alvarez. In the second inning, Alvarez got ahold of an 0-1 pitch and sent it over the wall in left field to put Western ahead early on.
 
Lindenwood would add two in the fourth inning to hold a 2-1 lead heading into the seventh, but that all changed with one swing. Coming into the game as a pinch hitter, Cynthia Hull smacked a two-run home run to left field to take a 3-2 lead as Kayla Zamora scored on the play. Emily Price came in to pitch for the seventh but the Lions would tie the game with a sacrifice bunt in the seventh, setting the stage for extra innings.
 
Western re-took the lead thanks to an RBI single from Maria Luna in the eighth, and Lindenwood then leveled the game in the bottom half of the inning. In the ninth, Alivia Beard hit an RBI double down the left field line that scored Kayla Depoorter before Rylee Boone added an infield single to put Western ahead 6-4. Lindenwood once again leveled the game with a two-run single in the bottom of the inning, as both teams were tied at six apiece heading into the 10th.
 
The Leatherneck bats once again came alive in the 10th, as Alvarez sent Western Illinois into the lead with an RBI single through the right side; Gabriela Drager scored and Maria Luna advanced to third on the throw. In the next at-bat, Kayla DePoorter hit another single to right field that scored Luna before Abrianna Gracia added another WIU run with a sacrifice fly to center field. Needing just three outs to end the game, Western led by three and Emily Price struck out two Lion hitters to close a 9-6 victory.
 
11 different Leathernecks recorded hits as Western finished with 15 total – the most by a Leatherneck softball team since Feb. 29, 2020, when the team had 15 against Northern Illinois. Drager, Luna, Alvarez and Beard all had multi-hit performances while Alvarez and Hull both finished with multiple RBIs.
 
Emily Price was credited with her third win of the 2023 campaign after allowing four hits and one earned run while striking out five across four innings of work. Kathryn McChristy, who started the game, finished with a total of six innings pitched and allowed four hits, two runs (both earned) and three strikeouts while facing 19 total batters.
 
Game 2: Lindenwood 13, Western Illinois 9
Lindenwood's offense jumped on Western early with four runs in the first inning, but Western Illinois got right back into the game three innings later off the bat of Savannah Rodriguez. With Rylee Boone at third and Alvarez at second, Rodriguez homered to left field, cutting the deficit to just one run. The Lions quickly responded with five runs in the bottom half of the inning, restoring the multi-run lead at 9-3 and adding a 10th run in the fifth.
 
Alvarez and Rodriguez would once again come up with big plays in the batter's box to build momentum for Western Illinois in the sixth inning. With one out, Alvarez hit double over the center fielder's head to score Rylee Boone, and promptly crossed home plate during the next at-bat thanks to yet another Rodriguez homer – this one to right field.
 
The Lions quickly responded once again with four RBIs in the bottom of the sixth to extend the lead to 13-6, but the WIU offense continued to generate runs in the top of the seventh. Malorie Gill was credited with the first RBI of her young career after a double to left center field and Megan Leonard promptly scored on a wild pitch to make it 13-9, and the seventh-inning surge continued with an RBI single from Kayla Zamora soon after. Despite the momentum, Western was unable to come all the way back and game two finished in favor of the Lions.
 
Savannah Rodriguez finished 3-4 with a career-high five RBIs as Western Illinois recorded 10 hits and four extra-base hits in the game. Both Rodriguez and Rylee Boone finished with two runs scored and Boone got on base three times thanks to one hit and two walks.
 
…
 
Sunday's game concluded the 2023 Lindenwood Invite, with the Leathernecks finishing 2-2. After falling to Lindenwood 3-1 in the first game yesterday, Western battled for a 4-2 victory against Green Bay to round out the day.

Gabriela Drager finished the tournament 5-15 with a pair of multi-hit games and Bella Alvarez extended her hitting streak to six games – including three-consecutive multi-hit performances. Alvarez increased her season average to .406 thanks to a  7-13 (.538) performance at the plate this weekend, also contributing four extra-base hits and five RBIs. Boone had four hits in four games including two against Green Bay while Emily Price finished with two earned runs and nine strikeouts across 11 innings pitched.
 
Western Illinois plays its next tournament in Wichita, Kan., where the team will face Bradley and Wichita State for two games apiece. First pitch is scheduled for 12 p.m. on Saturday (March 4) against the Bradley Braves.
 
 
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