LEXINGTON, Ky. – After six and a half innings of scoreless softball dominated by Toledo pitcher Erin Hunt and Illinois pitcher Sydney Sickels, Illini centerfielder Kiana Sherlund hammered a 2-0 pitch over the wall in leftfield to give Illinois a 2-0 walk-off victory and stay alive in the NCAA Softball Lexington Regional.
Illinois will play Virginia Tech in game 5 later Saturday evening with the winner advancing to play Kentucky in the regional final Sunday at noon ET.
Avrey Steiner got the rally started for Illinois with a one-out single up the middle followed by a fly out from Annie Fleming. That set the stage for Sherlund, who took a 2-0 pitch out of the park for her fifth homer of the season.
Hunt received the tough-luck loss after going 6.2 innings allowing five hits with six strikeouts and three walks. Sickels received the win going seven innings allowing three hits and five walks. Sickels struck out seven batters to move to 19-13 on the year.
ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
SOFTBALL
TOLEDO VS. ILLINOIS
MAY 18, 2019
JOHN CROPP STADIUM – LEXINGTON, KY.
Toledo Head Coach Joe Abraham
Opening statement …
“We just talked in the locker room about how proud we are of this team and how far they’ve come. Once again, they have shown they can play with anybody. One of the top Power Five teams in the country and there we are in the seventh inning. Once again, Erin (Hunt) is dealing and as she said before she can’t do it without Berg (Kaitlyn Bergman) catching. Berg is going to be a huge loss. It was (Kiana Sherlund) that hit that home run. She’s a great hitter. They earned it. We can live with that. It stinks to lose, but they earned it.”
On how he ended up recruiting pitcher Erin Hunt …
“Erin is short. A lot of coaches don’t like that. I don’t care. I’m just looking for results. She could be 4-foot-5 for all I care. I watched her play a lot and I talked to her high school coach. Erin went to a small high school and we get those calls all the time, but you never look past them.”
On what makes Erin Hunt an effective pitcher …
“Number one, (Erin Hunt) she is a competitor. That desire makes her tough. She has a good rise ball and she has a good screwball. Her pitches are hard to hit. She probably throwing 60 miles per hour, but that movement makes her pitches hard to hit.”
On what his plans are for the next season …
“All the players on the team now know what the top-level teams look like. They’re not going to be intimidated by anyone. They have that experience. There is no replacing these seniors, so next year is probably going to be a little harder for us. But everyone will probably step up more next year.”
Toledo Student-Athletes
#14, Erin Hunt, P
On giving up the walk-off home run …
“I believe it (the count) was 2-0 at the time so obviously I don’t want to walk the girl. There’s already
someone on second, so I came back at the top of the strike zone, she just kept her hands high
and hit it. Kudos to her. It was a great hit.”
On how much she had left pitching into the seventh inning …
“In the middle of the game, you don’t feel it. You just keep going, keep fighting.”
On being on the mound …
“I’m living every little girl’s dream. (I’m) Not going to take anything for granted. Every pitch, I’m happy to be here, lucky to be here, and as Coach Joe said, I came from DII. I never thought I’d be on this stage. I looked at DI schools. No one ever bit. Actually, Coach Joe was the only coach. Without him I wouldn’t be playing college softball. I’m just taking it all in and enjoying the experience.”
#31, Kaitlyn Bergman, C
On looking back on her career …
“Just very grateful for it. It’s been a long five years with a different coaching staff starting this year. When I came in it was actually a new coaching staff as well. So just that adjustment period, it was a lot to take in but looking back on it now, who would’ve thought we would have gotten this far? We weren’t expected to get this far ever. It’s just nice to kind of shock the softball world and say ‘This is Toledo. We’re in Ohio, Ohio State isn’t the only team in Ohio. We are there to.’ It’s just really nice to look back and be able to say that.”
On what made the pitcher (Sydney Sickels) so tough …
“She just kind of kept us off balance, obviously this is a big stage for us, and I think we’re all really eager to get the bat on the ball and want to get the big hits and want to win so bad. We probably weren’t as patient as we have been in the past and I think that hurt us a little bit today. She just kept us off balance and she threw the pitches when she needed to and she had the good spin on the ball to move it when she needed to.”
On seeing the home run pitch from behind the plate …
“It was not just a meatball down the middle. She had a good swing on the pitch. I didn’t think it was going to be a home run. I thought maybe our left fielder would catch it, or it would be just a double off the fence. Definitely well hit and she just kept her hands up there and did what she had to do on that pitch.”
