By ISU Sports Information
DES MOINES, Iowa – The Illinois State softball offense was stymied Saturday by Drake’s dominant pitching. Sunday, the Redbirds came back with a vengeance and received another spectacular outing from Regan Romshek en route to a 7-1 victory over the Bulldogs in Des Moines, Iowa.
ISU closed the book on the regular season in impressive fashion as Romshek picked up a complete game victory, her 13th win this season. The junior was dazzling, going seven innings and giving up seven hits and one earned run while striking out a season-high 11 hitters and walking just two.
At the beginning of the game, Romshek posted zeroes, but it didn’t come without a little stress. In the bottom of the first, a single and a double put Drake runners at first and second with one out. However, Romshek calmly recorded the next two outs to work out of the jam and keep the game scoreless.
In the second, Romshek gave up a pair of singles to start the inning. A sacrifice bunt moved the runners into scoring position with one out. Romshek was able to get the next hitter to line out, but then issued a walk to load the bases. However, she recorded a strikeout for out number three and, once again, escaped trouble.
Drake left five runners on base through the first two innings, including three in scoring position.
Contrary to Saturday, Romshek’s offense gave her support in the fourth inning. Drake starter Rebekah Schmidt was tossing a no-hitter through three innings, but ISU’s bats awoke and hitting became contagious.
Romshek started it all with a walk and two batters later, Stephanie Gallant singled her home. Riley Strandgard followed with a single and then Kara Repp hit both players in with a single of her own. Repp was not on the bases long as Payton Billups hit her home and Billups later scored on a single from Annie Heineman.
The true definition of a hit parade, ISU had seven-straight singles that led to five runs and a commanding lead with the way Romshek was throwing the ball.
The only run she surrendered was in the bottom of the frame after two doubles. Her offense gave her two more runs of support in the sixth when Heineman blasted a two-run home run to right-centerfield.
After relinquishing the run in the fourth, Romshek retired nine of the final 10 batters she faced. Six of the final nine outs were strikeouts and for the weekend Romshek struck out 17 batters.
The Redbirds close the regular season with a 23-30 record overall and 14-12 in the Missouri Valley Conference. ISU will enter the MVC Tournament as the seven seed and will play Bradley at 1:34 p.m. Thursday in Wichita, Kansas.
