In Short…
The Loyola softball team's season came to an end with an 11-8 loss to Indiana State in the first round of the MVC Tournament. The Ramblers collected 10 hits while three players tallied multi-hit games.
 
How It Happened
Indiana State drew first blood with a run in the game's opening half inning. The Ramblers quickly responded with a long first inning of their own to tie up the score. Jessica Shields began the frame with a single up the middle, while Allyson Ivey and Shannon McGee reached base later on via walk and hit by pitch respectively. A five-pitch walk to Nova Sinskul plated Shields and got the Ramblers on the board.
 
However, a seven-run inning by the Sycamores propelled them to a commanding lead they would hold on to the rest of the way. The top of the second saw 13 batters come to the plate and put the visitors up 8-1.
 
The Ramblers did fight back, a move made possible by a six-run bottom of the fourth that got LUC back in the game. Shields walked with the bases loaded to produce the second Loyola RBI off a walk on the afternoon. The base-on-balls was followed up with a Madison Ebeling RBI-single that brought home one.
 
The big blast came with a grand slam off the bat of Ivey. The roundtripper to center cleared the bases and suddenly made it a one-run game, and pushed her over the century mark for total bases in her sophomore season. The Ramblers got one more hit after the big fly, but Indiana State managed to get out of the inning with the lead at 8-7.
 
Indiana State grabbed another run in the fifth, but Loyola responded during its turn to hit in the fifth inning to make it a one-run game again. Ebeling roped a 1-2 pitch down the left field line for a double that scored Shields all the way from first. The extra-base hit was her eighth of the season and went down as her second hit and RBI of the game as well.
 
A scoreless sixth inning transitioned to a seventh that saw Indiana State add on a pair of insurance runs. Two more in the seventh extended the Sycamore lead to 11-8 and forced Loyola to score three in order to keep playing. Abbey Jacobsen led off the frame with a single, but the next three Ramblers were retired and Indiana State advanced to the second round.  
 
A Look at the Numbers
-Allyson Ivey finished the year with a .460 batting average and is now the program record holder for highest average in a season. It is on pace to be the highest in Valley history, a stat that will be determined once the final MVC team has been eliminated from National Championship contention.
-The sophomore sensation's nine home runs in 2019 put her in a five-way tie for the fourth most in a single-season in program history.
-Jessica Shields' three runs scored tied a career high, a mark she achieved three previous times this season.
-Madison Ebeling became the fifth Rambler to register 10 or more multi-hit games in 2019.
 
Up Next
The Ramblers are expected to return 12 letterwinners to the 2020 team, including all four of their 2019 All-MVC representatives.