In Short…
Two team home runs and a two-RBI game one from Allyson Ivey paced Loyola to a 9-4 victory, a triumph that saw Kiley Jones collect her 60^th career win in the circle. However, the Redbirds rebounded to take game two 11-5 and salvage a doubleheader split.
 
How It Happened
Starting pitchers Keenan Dolezal and Morgan Day each spotted zeros through the game's first two innings. The Ramblers changed that in the third that began with a leadoff walk from Abbey Jacobsen. Two batters and two outs later, Madison Ebeling scorched a double that rolled all the way to the wall and got the visitors on the board. Already with one hit in the opening inning, Allyson Ivey immediately secured another multi-hit game with an RBI-single through the right side to double the Loyola lead to 2-0.
 
A big fifth inning for the Redbirds temporarily put them ahead and in charge. Three RBI singles in a span of five batters scored four and gave them a 4-2 lead. Kiley Jones limited the damage to that as she picked up her 70^th and 71^st strikeouts of the season throughout the frame.
 
The Ramblers responded immediately and cut the deficit to one with a solo home run from Ivey to lead off the inning. The seven-pitch at-bat resulted in Ivey's eighth home run of the season and put her one RBI shy of 50. Loyola would not be denied the lead, as Jordyn Cordell worked another deep-count at-bat into an infield single that scored Nova Sinskul and Shannon McGee to put the Ramblers back in business.
 
Up 5-4 in the top of the seventh, Loyola got a two-out single from Katie Kasubke to provide an insurance run for the team. The insurance tally quickly inflated to a five-run lead as Sinskul blasted a three-run bomb to dead center that widened the lead to 9-4. The roundtripper gave her 20 RBI for the season and tied the freshman's season-high for three RBI in a game.
 
Jones took care of business in the bottom of the seventh with a picked up her 14^th win of the season as Loyola captured game one of the twin bill.
 
Game two started with fireworks with a Kasubke two-run double down the left field line to score two quick runs for the Ramblers. The hit plated McGee for her 40^th run of the season and 100^th of the junior's career. However, Illinois State put a halt to the Loyola momentum with a multi-run first of their own to take a 3-2 lead.
 
The Redbirds compounded the lead with another high-scoring attack in the second. A four-run stanza extended the lead to 7-2 and put the Ramblers in a hole they wouldn't dig out of. Loyola benefited from four ISU errors in the second game, two of which allowed multiple Ramblers runs to score in the third, but the Maroon and Gold couldn't quite close the gap.
 
With its lead now at 7-4, Illinois State added another to go up by four. The 8-4 score stood for two and a half innings, but a three-run home run from Annie Borries blew it wide open and put the home team up 11-4. Loyola took advantage of another error to get its fifth run, but Illinois State held on and salvaged a split by handing LUC an 11-5 loss.
 
A Look at the Numbers
-Shannon McGee logged at least one hit in both games to secure two straight seasons of 50-plus tallies.
-McGee also totaled four runs through the doubleheader (two in each game). She now holds second place in program history for most runs in a season with 41 and counting.
-Kiley Jones earned the victory in game one, her 60th career. She became the second ever Rambler to reach that mark.
-The team continued its third inning success with four more third inning runs to surpass 60. The season total is now at 62, with the next closest being 37 in the fourth inning.
 
Up Next
The Ramblers return to Loyola Softball Park where they will play the remainder of the regular season. First on the slate is city-rival DePaul for a midweek clash. Weather permitting, the Red Line Rivalry tilt gets started at 1 p.m. on May 1.