The Illinois softball team hopes its constant work with communication will pay off this weekend, as it did last week, with wins in its second tournament of the season, the Hilton Houston Plaza Invite.

“Every play defensively involves more than one player, even if it’s a strikeout,” head coach Terri Sullivan said. “So especially when you get a lot happening offensively either for you or against you, you really need to have solid communication.”

Illinois looks to continue the success it had last Sunday at the UNI Dome Tournament — going 2-0 in the final day of the tournament.

“I thought we did really well, especially for the first time going out and doing everything together,” sophomore outfielder Brittany Sanchez said. “We have been focusing a lot on communication and I thought that went really well.”

The Illini will play in-state rival DePaul once, as well as Texas and Houston twice over the weekend.

“It’s a terrific tournament,” Sullivan said. “We’re really excited about this weekend. Each team we play offensively is very strong one through nine in their lineup, and each team has a couple of power hitters that can change a game with one swing of the bat. All of the teams also like to run a lot and have some of the best returning pitchers in the country, so it should be exciting.”

Sullivan added that the Illini share a lot of similarities to the teams they will be facing this weekend; drawing on said similarities will be key in coming away with victories.

“We have to work really hard to make the routine plays and defend well,” she said. “We have to throw the ball and catch the ball well, especially when there’s speed in play like there is with these teams. Our pitchers have to challenge these really aggressive teams and we have to put the ball in play so we can get on base and run like we want to.”

The Illini will be led by senior pitcher Pepper Gay, who over the weekend pitched a no-hitter and broke the school strike-out record.

“It means a lot to me, it’s nice to be on that list of pitchers who have thrown no-hitters,” Gay said. “That was a goal of mine and I’m glad I’ve finally accomplished it. As for the strike-out record, that’s just hard work. It’s just focusing on throwing strikes and it took a long time but it’s nice to be there.”

“She has so many of the accolades for pitchers but she doesn’t just want the individual accolades,” Sullivan said. “She wants team wins and team success and that’s where her leadership is so big this year.”

Gay said that in order for Illinois to succeed it needs to be both consistent and resilient.

“We just have to show resiliency,” Gay said. “When we get down we have to fight back. We have to score both early on in the game and late in the game too, and we need to play all seven innings.”

Nicholas can be reached at [email protected] and @IlliniSportsGuy.