GALESBURG, Ill. — The long drought is over for the Knox College softball team.
The Prairie Fire knocked off visiting Grinnell, 6-4, in the first game of a Midwest Conference doubleheader on Monday afternoon at Knox Softball Park, winning their first game of the season and ending a 53-game losing streak that began back on March 19 of last year. The victory was also the first for Casey Hipp '21, who took over head coaching duties for Knox (1-28, 1-9 MWC) in the middle of last season.
The Pioneers (9-23, 6-4 MWC) bounced back in game two, pulling away in the late innings for a 10-2 triumph.
Grinnell rallied from an early 3-0 deficit to tie the opener in the fifth inning, and after the Prairie Fire took a 4-3 lead in the bottom half, the visitors drew even once again in the sixth. In the Knox half of the sixth, senior Maddie Poetzinger opened the frame with a single, was sacrificed to second, then moved to third with some heads-up base running on a foul pop to first. After a walk to junior Maddie Hicks, a wild pitch got away from the catcher just far enough to allow Poetzinger to scamper home with a head-first slide for the go-ahead run. Hicks then scored on a fly ball that was dropped as the left fielder collided with the center fielder.
Fifth-year Londyn Nelson hit the first Pioneer batter in the seventh and immediately threw a wild pitch, possibly showing some nerves with the game on the line. But she took a deep breath and retired the next three batters to pick up the victory. Nelson (1-10) worked the final 2.1 innings in relief of Janet Lentini, who had tossed four shutout innings before tiring in the fifth.
The three initial Knox runs came in the second on a bases-loaded walk to fifth-year Alycea Burnett, an RBI single off the bat of Poetzinger, and a sacrifice fly in foul territory courtesy of first-year Kenzi Chandler. And it was fifth-year Haylee Carpenter who gave the Prairie Fire a 4-3 lead in the fifth with an RBI single with the bases loaded.
Elise Strohm (1-3) suffered the loss, yielding the final two Knox runs in the sixth after relieving with no one out in the fifth and runners on second and third, which only led to one Prairie Fire run.
"We got the monkey off our back," said Coach Hipp after the game. "The team had terrific energy throughout both games and played well — made the plays in the field, took some key extra bases, put together a lot of quality at-bats. They really showed their resilience today."
In the second game, Grinnell jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first against Nelson (1-11), but that's the way the score remained through five innings as Nelson settled in. After the Pioneers put runners on second and third with nobody out in the sixth, Grinnell got both runners home on grounders to double its advantage.
Knox scored once in its half of the sixth, but the Pioneers blew the game wide open in the seventh as six runners crossed the plate. A Hicks sacrifice fly in the bottom half was all the Prairie Fire could muster before the third out was recorded.
Lane Kohler (6-7) went the distance for Grinnell, allowing two runs, one earned, on four hits and five walks while fanning four. She helped her own cause with three of the team's 11 hits, scoring one run and driving in two others.
Poetzinger had two of the four Knox hits and finished the twinbill 4-for-6.
The Prairie Fire will be back in action on Tuesday as they host league-leading Illinois College (21-15, 10-2 MWC) for a doubleheader at Knox Softball Field beginning at 3 p.m. Both games will be streamed live with stats available through the official website of Knox Athletics, PrairieFire.Knox.edu.
