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EDWARDSVILLE - The Edwardsville softball team bounced back from a loss at Collinsville very nicely on Friday afternoon, sweeping a doubleheader from East St. Louis 22-0 and 19-0 at the Edwardsville Sports Complex
The Tigers scored in all six innings of the two games, scoring 10 in the second of the opener, then scoring nine in the opening inning of the nightcap. Edwardsville was able to bounce back from the loss to the Kahoks the night before and played well.
"That's exactly right, bounce back and get a couple of wins," said Edwardsville head coach Lori Blade. "We got a lot of kids in different positions today, and that's always fun. And we've got a Senior Night tomorrow, so we'll bounce right back tomorrow morning and get after it."
The Flyers kept battling throughout the two games, with their coaches shouting encouragement to the players throughout, never gave up and kept playing hard.
"Absolutely," Blade said. "They made some nice plays, did a good job of putting the ball in play at times, and they try hard, that's for sure."
The Tigers hit and pitched well in both games, and were able to get all their players into the second game, which is very important as the season winds down.
"It is," Blade said. "We had a JV game going at the same time early, and we got some of the JV kids at-bats and got them in the field that second game, and I thought Brooke (Tolle) and Avery (Hamilton) both threw really well today."
The Tigers were also able to hit well, having three inside-the-park home runs in the second game, and played well overall.
"Yes, it is," Blade said. "We're going into one more week left, and we need to keep getting better all the time, and have a good mental approach to the game, and today was good for them."
The Tigers scored eight in the first inning of the opener, with Tolle, Abbie Hall and Lexi Gorniak all having RBI hits, then scored 10 times in the second, with Hall and Gorniak driving in two more runs each and Ryleigh Owens, Tatum Van Ryswyk and Sam Sanders also driving in runs, and scored four more times in the third, with Tolle driving in a pair of runs in the inning and Tayler Hope also having a RBI.
Tolle pitched all four innings for Edwardsville, striking out 11 batters and allowing only a fourth inning infield single to Crystal Hallman as the game was called by the 15-run rule with the Tigers winning 22-0.
In the second game, Edwardsville scored nine runs in the opening inning, with Sydney Lawrence and Gorniak hitting inside-the-park homers, with Gorniak driving in three runs and both Lawrence and Van Ryswyk bringing in two each. In the second inning, Jayna Connoyer hit a three-run homer, while Lexie Griffin drove home two more, and in the third, the Tigers scored four times, with Hamilton, Jillian Lane, Grace Blakemore and Lawrence all having RBIs.
Hamilton struck out all nine batters she faced in her three innings of work, with the game being called at the end of the third with the Tigers taking the win.
Edwardsville is now 15-5 on the year, and will hold its annual Senior Day game Saturday morning against Triad in a 10 a.m. start, then plays its final regular season home game against Belleville West Tuesday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. The final two regular season games will be at O'Fallon May 26 and Alton May 27. Blade is also looking ahead to the IHSA postseason series, which will be played after a one-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Yes, it should be out tomorrow, I believe," Blade said. "So it'll be interesting to see how that's going to play out."Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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