The Illinois softball team finally has a weekend to build off of after winning two of its three games at the Under Armour Invitational in Florida this weekend.

The weekend had a promising start, as the Illini exploded for 14 runs in a 14-10 victory over Georgia Southern in Tampa, Florida. Head coach Terri Sullivan was pleased with her team’s offensive outburst.

“It was great to finally see us all come together for a game,” Sullivan said. “We haven’t had it the past few weekends, but we definitely did this weekend.”

The Illini did most of their damage late in the game after Georgia Southern took an early 3-0 lead. The scoring went back and forth throughout the game until Illinois scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning to put the game out of reach.

Sophomore pitcher Jade Vecvanags came through in the bottom of the seventh, shutting down Georgia Southern in the final inning.

The Illini’s offense was strong, but their pitching was lacking in comparison. Even so, senior pitcher Shelese Arnold wasn’t worried.

“It really helps knowing that our offense was playing so well,” Arnold said. “It allows us to just relax and hit our spots. We just didn’t have it today.”

The Illini hit a bump in the road in their next outing, losing to host Southern Florida on its home field in Tampa. It looked like the Illini’s offense was going to keep rolling when it scored two runs in the first inning. Those two runs were all Illinois would score for the rest of the day, however, and it lost 5-2.

Uncharacteristic mistakes were to blame for the loss, according to Sullivan, including defensive and pitching errors.

“We just can’t allow defensive errors to happen,” Sullivan said. “Walks and home runs are bad enough by themselves, but when those start happening at the same time, then we are really in trouble.”

Sullivan also preached resilience for the Illini, and she made sure to tell them to forget about their loss and come back the next day with a winning mentality.

Bad weather halted the Illini though — all games on Saturday were cancelled due to rain.

After the weather delay, the schedule for the tournament moved around — Illinois’ game against Florida Gulf Coast was canceled, and the matchup with Eastern Michigan was moved to Sunday afternoon.

Weather was still a factor Sunday morning, and the Illini’s game against East Carolina in Clearwater, Florida, was delayed.

The Illini started the game firing on all cylinders. The offense got an early start, and the pitching backed it up and Illinois took a 6-2 lead into the sixth inning.

Then the Illini hit a rough patch, and the Pirates came back and tied it in the top of the sixth. Despite losing a big lead late, junior infielder Allie Bauch was not worried.

“We still got out of the inning,” Bauch said. “That is why it was good to score early, it gives us a cushion for the game.”

The Illini’s offense came to the rescue again by scoring one run in the bottom of the sixth, and then the pitching staff got it together and shut out the pirates in the top of the seventh for the win.

Illinois’ final game of the day was against Eastern Michigan. The Illini kept up their level of play and jumped out to an early lead. Due to a travel curfew rule set before the games Sunday, the game was ended early, and the results were not counted.

The team wasn’t happy that the game wouldn’t count — the Illini needed only two more outs to put them over the threshold and win the game — but Sullivan thought it benefitted the team all the same.

“We still know in our minds that we could have won that game, and that is all we need as a team,” Sullivan said.

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