Sept. 20, 2008

Box Score - Northern Illinois v. UIC

Box Score - UIC v. Illinois State

Normal, Ill. - With two on and a 1-1 count in the 11th inning, Brooke Frydendall's walk-off home run capped the Flames victory over Illinois State on the first day of the State Farm Illinois Collegiate Softball Championships late Saturday night.

UIC defeated Northern Illinois, 4-1 in game one to advance to the Gold Bracket for Sunday's action, where they will face Northwestern at 10 am.

Depending on the outcome of the 10am game, the Flames will either play Illinois or DePaul at 3pm.

Game One
UIC 4, Northern Illinois 1

Veterans Melissa Marinacci and Sarah Clynes led a Flames lineup filled with new faces in a 4-1 Flames victory over Northern Illinois.

With the action contained to quick infield plays after three scoreless innings, Melissa Marinacci kick-started the Flames offense with a home run over center field. The Huskies answered back in the second half of the fourth when Emily Gooding drove in Andi Colosimo with a well-placed single down the third base line.

The Flames broke open the game in the seventh when Christie Seddon blasted a double deep down the left field line to drive in Shannon Kehr, who was walked at the start of the inning.

Sarah Clynes followed up Seddon with a double in the opposite direction to right field, scoring both Seddon and Kelsey Sturgeon.

Clynes earned the victory in the circle, scattering seven hits and striking out three.

Game Two
UIC 7, Illinois State 4 (11 Innings)

Illinois State held on to a 2-0 lead with two outs in the seventh before Sarah Clynes drove in Shannon Kehr and Christie Seddon to even the score at 2-2.

The extra inning affair, which utilized the international tiebreaker rules at the top of the 10th (a runner is placed on second to start the inning), saw UIC and ISU each earn a run to tie the game at 3-3.

In the 11th, ISU picked up their fourth run off of Casey Gorrell's RBI double to deep right field. But the Flames answered back after Melinda Macias sacrifice hit moved Alicia Abbott to third, then allowed her to score off of Shannon Kehr's RBI single down the right side.

UIC made the most of an error by shortstop Niki Stansell, who allowed Kelsey Sturgeon's infield single to roll between her legs and advanced Kehr to third.

Brooke Frydendall, who prior to the 11th inning had not collected a hit all game, swung away with a 1-1 count to blast the walk-off, three run homer well over left field to conclude the game.

Ashley Hewett made a strong first apperance in a Flames jersey, lasting all 11 innings, striking out nine while giving up only seven hits and four runs.

Due to rain delays earlier in the afternoon, the three-hour affair did not conclude until close to 10 pm as the entire tournament schedule was pushed back by over two hours.