The Illinois softball team dispatched the No. 20 Louisville Cardinals 8-0 Sunday to earn third place in the Diamond Fun and Sun Classic in Miami.

Freshman Vicky Brown pitched a complete game two-hitter to earn her first win of the season and her career. She fanned three batters in five innings of work and was bolstered by a big bottom-half of the fourth.

Her teammates were took notice of her performance.

“(Brown) did great,” junior outfielder Makenzie Smith said. “She pretty much dominated on the mound.”

The Illini scored five runs in the fourth inning and added another two in the fifth.

“We finished on a really high note today against Louisville,” head coach Terri Sullivan said. “Today was probably our most complete performance.”

The win came on the heels of a disappointing second day of the tournament, when the Illini scored a combined two runs in two games against No. 16 Oklahoma and Illinois State.

In Saturday’s first game, Illinois scored twice in the third to take a 2-0 lead, but the Redbirds came back in the bottom half with a pair of runs.

For the rest of the game, the Illini were shut down by Illinois State relief pitcher Stacy Birk, who pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings and struck out five.

Illinois State broke the 2-2 tie with three runs on three hits in the bottom of the sixth.

The Illini failed to rally in the seventh and went down in order on three groundouts.

“(Birk’s) a confident pitcher,” Sullivan said. “We didn’t adjust really well when she came in. You have to give her credit. She was on top of her game.”

Later in the day, the No. 16 Sooners shut out the Illini 3-0. Oklahoma scored three times in the third on an RBI double and a two-run inside the park home run by Norelle Dickson.

The Sooners’ Lauren Eckermann pitched a complete game and allowed a mere six hits to earn her third victory of the season.

Friday night in the season opener, the Illini beat Louisville 6-2 and beat host-team Florida International 11-5 by means of two grand slams.

“What we showed (Friday) was the ability to be resilient, which we really started in the fall,” Sullivan said. “Opening Day is always exciting and winning that first game is always nice to get under your belt.”