Illinois softball returns from California without playing an official game

By Charlotte Carroll

The Illinois softball team went into the weekend 11-3 and came out 11-3, after five games were rained out in the Long Beach Invitational Tournament this weekend.

Illinois was supposed to play Oregon State, Utah Valley, Nevada, California State-Fullerton and No. 5 UCLA over a span of three days, but all their games were canceled because of heavy rainfall.

Friday’s matchups against Oregon State and Utah Valley were the first to be called off with wet field conditions not permitting the games. Saturday saw more cancellations against Nevada and Cal State Fullerton because of wet field conditions.

However, Illinois was able to schedule a game on Saturday afternoon against California-Santa Barbara on one of the other fields, which at the time was deemed playable. The Illini were able to take a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Senior Alex Booker hit an RBI triple and sophomore Allie Bauch went 2-for-2 with a run scored.

Yet, after three innings of play, the game was called off because of large thunderstorms moving into the area. The two teams were unable to restart the game at a different time. The game was not official and the statistics earned will not count because the teams had not played five innings.

Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!

  • Catch the latest on University of Illinois news, sports, and more. Delivered every weekday.
  • Stay up to date on all things Illini sports. Delivered every Monday.
Thank you for subscribing!

Sunday saw yet another new scheduling as Illinois was pitted against Long Beach State rather the previous matchup against UCLA. Long Beach State was coming into the Illinois game with having won its last two games in the tournament on Thursday against Nevada and Utah Valley before the weather canceled the remainder of the tournament for the team.

But the rain struck once again and forced another canceled game.

Charlotte can be reached at [email protected].