With the Illini down 3-1 the bottom of the second, freshman right fielder Nicole Evans stepped to the plate with a runner on and knocked a shot over the right field fence to tie the game in front of a packed crowd at Eichelberger Field.

Evans’ home run gave the Illinois softball team momentum as it went on to take the lead with a four-run third inning. Illinois would go on to win Saturday’s first game, the opener of a three game series against the No. 20 Cornhuskers by a score of 11-4.

“(Evans) is a very confident kid,” head coach Terri Sullivan said. “She has great power, and we expect her as a young player to really grow as a hitter. She’s going to hit some balls like she did today and she’s going to have some strikeouts too. We don’t want her to change her aggressive mentality at the plate.”

The Illinois softball team (18-15) would go on to split the doubleheader on Saturday against Nebraska (26-12), but the Cornhuskers took the three game series with a convincing win on Sunday.

Two early errors committed by the Illini defense helped Nebraska jump out to an early lead in the second game. Junior starting pitcher Shelese Arnold, who relieved the previous game, also had issues finding her rhythm after she was called for four illegal pitches for leaping.

Sullivan pulled Arnold in the third inning in favor of freshman Jade Vecvanags, who has typically served as a late-game reliever for the team. Sullivan said Arnold has never had issues with throwing illegal pitches and praised the junior for her efforts in relieving freshman Brandi Needham in the first game.

Arnold was confused by the reasoning behind the illegal pitch calls, but wasn’t too upset about being pulled early because she believes in the Illini’s depth in the position.

“We really weren’t worried because we have a staff of pitchers,” Arnold said. “Brandi and Jade are freshmen, but they play beyond their years.”

Vecvanags allowed five runs through five innings and the Cornhuskers took an 8-1 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth. The Illini were able to drive in three more runs off the bats of senior left fielder Alex Booker and sophomore designated player Kylie Johnson.

“It’s our job to fight back, especially as an offense,” Booker said Saturday. “I take pride in that because that is pretty much the majority of my job. I think we can score more runs off (Nebraska’s) pitcher for sure.”

The Illini then loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh, but weren’t able to make anything of it as the Cornhuskers took the second game by a score of 9-4.

In the last game of the series, Nebraska’s batters were able to light up the scoreboard with eight runs off seven hits in the second inning.

Needham struggled to get her pitch going at the start of the game and was relieved in the second inning by Arnold. Needham tried to stay calm during Nebraska’s onslaught, but she just couldn’t get the last out of the inning.

“The only way to react is to try to hit the corners more,” Needham said. “I wasn’t really thinking about each hit they got; I was just trying to focus pitch-by-pitch and get to the next batter.”

Down 8-0, Sullivan pushed her team to fight back, which it did in the form of two home runs from senior catcher Jenna Mychko and sophomore third baseman Katie Repole. The runs weren’t enough as the game ended in the fifth inning by mercy rule with a final score of 12-3.

Sullivan was happy with the way the team competed this weekend against the tough division rival, which dropped Illinois’ Big Ten record to 2-7. Despite the record, Sullivan is confident her team can learn from the mistakes made in the losses in time for next weekend’s series at Wisconsin.

“We aim to play consistent softball,” Sullivan said. “We have a very aggressive schedule remaining. Our team knows that, and they like challenges. You really have to take the punches and then give them back. I think our team is capable of that.”

Daniel can be reached at [email protected] and @ddexter23.