Himes Goes Deep Twice to Lift No. 20 Softball Past Illinois, 5-0 – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/9/2002 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 9, 2002
Box Score| Quotes| Notes
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Kristine Himes (Jr., Bolivar, Ohio/Tuscarawas Valley) cranked two home runs out of Alumni Field in Ann Arbor, Mich., and Wendy Allen (So., Moreno Valley, Calif./Moreno Valley) pitched six innings of shutout ball to help the No. 20 Ohio State softball team to a 5-0 victory over No. 5 seed Illinois (33-23) in the second round of the Big Ten tournament Thursday. The win for the Buckeyes (52-10), the No. 2 seed in the tournament, was the first in the conference tournament under its new format started in 1995 after an 0-2 record a year ago. The Big Ten held a tournament in 1982 with OSU going 3-1 to finish third.
“We have not been very successful on this field and it feels good to get the first one in the conference tournament,” Linda Kalafatis, OSU head coach, said. “I thought our kids played well and really hit the ball well. We had 11 hits on the score board but also had a lot of hard hit balls that Illinois threw us out on. Kristine picked out a couple of good pitches to hit. We used that year of experience from last year to get the win and move on.”
Himes went deep to right center for her 15th and 16th dingers on the year with the first shot landing an estimated 270 feet from home plate. Her two blasts ties a record for homers in a Big Ten tournament with five other players including Jennifer Tripken of Penn State who accomplished the same earlier in the day.
“I like to start rallies and whenever I hit a home run, the team rallies behind that and we play better,” Himes said. “The second one felt good but I was really just wanting to put the ball in play and see what we could do. It also was nice to help out the team to our first win in the tournament after going 0-2 last year. It was a big win but tomorrow will be a bigger game for us. We were done a little after the loss to Penn State and now we taken the first step to moving on and winning the second season.” After a scoreless first by both teams, the Illini started a run in the second. With two outs, Alicia Hammel doubled off the fence in left and moved to third on an infield single to short by Sarah Baumgartner. The threat ended one batter later with Elene Planinsek grounding out. The Buckeyes also opened up in the second while posting four runs on the board.
Himes led off with the long blast on a 2-1 count to get things started. Breana Pozzi (So., Petaluma, Calif./Casa Grande) followed with a single to right and was run for by Jenn Elwell (Sr., Dearborn Heights, Mich./Divine Child). Sarah West (Sr., Galloway, Ohio/Hilliard Daivdson) moved Elwell to second while reaching on an error by the short stop before making way for Rogeanna Hottinger (Jr., Newark, Ohio/Newark) to pinch run. After a groundout by Annie Dedic (Jr., Yorba Linda, Calif./Fullerton JC) advanced the runners one base, Jennifer Link (Jr., Yorba Linda, Calif./Sonora) grounded into a fielder’s choice at third. The third base player chose to come home to pick off Elwell, and the throw was in time, but Elwell jarred the ball loose from the catcher and scored on the play.
Anna Smith (Sr., Walnut, Calif./Diamond Bar) then strolled to the plate and singled through the right side to bring in Hottinger and Link for a 4-0 lead and chase starting pitcher Abby Lovejoy from the circle. Reliever Sherri Taylor gave up a single to Allen but got Stacy Roth (Sr., Wauseon, Ohio/Wauseon) to line into a double play to end the inning. Allen stayed sharp on the mound and the defense helped her out by retiring the side through the sixth inning with just four more hits recorded. Allen also struck out three to keep the Illini at bay.
After picking up hits in the third and fourth innings, the Buckeyes tacked on more hits but could not cross home plate until Himes came to bat in the fifth and crushed her second homer of the game. Katie Chain (Jr., North Canton, Ohio/Hoover) came into the game in the seventh and closed out the game with her 499th career strikeout, a fly out and a ground out.
Himes and Allen led the team with 3-for-3 days at the plate with Pozzi and Link adding two hits in the game. Lindsay Hamma led the Illini with three of their five hits in the contest.
The Buckeyes return to action at 2:30 p.m. Friday and face the winner of No. 1 Michigan and No. 5 Penn State.
