Every season is made of hundreds of moments. Every team experiences highs and lows. In the case of Illinois (9-9), that was the theme of its Wooo Pig Classic tenure in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Following a 2-3 weekend, the Illini came away with things to look back on, as well as things to improve. Here are some highs and lows of Illini softball.
High: Caryl of the Bells
The big highlight of the weekend took place on Friday against Missouri State (1-15). In the bottom of the ninth inning, sophomore infielder Adisyn Caryl stepped up to the plate with a chance to put the extra-inning game to bed. She delivered in the biggest way, hitting a walk-off home run to give the Illini a 4-3 victory over the Bears.
“I told myself, ‘I need to stay back,’” Caryl said. “I saw that pitch and I swung, and it went over. My teammates were the most excited for me, and I did it for them, really.”
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Caryl received a pep talk from freshman infielder Taylor Porter before the plate appearance. Porter looked into Caryl’s eyes and told her she could do this, and she could end the game right then and there. The ball flew over the fence, and the team went crazy.
“The team loves her, and what’s not to love about (Caryl)?” said Tyra Perry, head coach. “She’s such a great kid from a great family, and she works really hard to be as good as she is.”
Caryl took the Bears yard again the following day in a 4-2 Illini win. This moved them to 2-1 on the weekend.
Low: Tough outings
Illinois played two games against No. 12 Arkansas (19-1) on Friday and Saturday, and neither went according to plan. Both games ended in six-inning run rule results. On Friday, it was 6-4 Razorbacks going into the bottom of the sixth. The Illini made a few costly errors in the field and the Razorbacks hit a grand slam, leading to six runs against.
“If you look at the box score, we were back and forth, until we got to the end,” Perry said. “We just didn’t have enough steam to pull through to seven innings.”
On Saturday, down 7-0 against the Razorbacks, senior catcher Paige Berkmeyer singled home a run to get on the board. With two outs, the Illini loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the sixth. Freshman first baseman Ella Cushing had a chance to cut further into the lead, but grounded out to short.
Sunday morning’s loss to Iowa (13-5) could have ended differently if Illinois had gotten out of the fourth inning unscathed. The Hawkeyes scratched three runs across in that inning, erasing a 1-0 Illini lead.
“We had a chance,” Perry said. “There were two outs. We had a chance to get out of that inning, and we didn’t do it.”
High: Youth contribution, strong pitching
On top of Caryl’s two home runs, both Cushing and freshman shortstop Ava Moore went yard. This was the theme for the team as a whole.
The young pitchers had a roller coaster weekend. In Friday’s win over Missouri State, sophomore right-hander Megan Nuechterlein only allowed one run. Freshman right-hander Danika Frazier allowed just two.
“ It’s going to be that way because we are young,” Perry said. “We are very young. We’re probably one of the youngest teams in the country right now.”
It was a tougher outing against Arkansas for the two young pitchers, but they still did some great things in the circle. This kept the Illini on course in Fayetteville, and the hope is they can continue to work on their craft.
Low: Consistency to be found
The team is young; the Illini are still trying to gel together and learn from each other. There have been games this season where the team played as one contingency and won big. However, there have been others where things didn’t go as well.
“I think, obviously, as more, more games come, we’re going to be more of one unit, getting used to playing with different people on the field and trusting everybody,” Caryl said.
Perry believes her team is in the process of growing together and setting the perfect lineup. It takes a while for any team to bond and play as a unit, but it especially takes longer when there is a lot of roster turnover from year to year.
Just a couple pitches can go a long way for Illinois. After a couple days of rest, the Illini will get back to work ahead of their home opener against the Saint Louis Billikens (7-8).
