Kay, Farley and Tolley Key 4-1 Series-Clinching Win at Illinois

Saturday, May 3

Urbana-Champaign, Ill.

2:00 P.M. EST / 1:00 P.M. CST

Ohio State

43-11-1, 16-6

Illinois

22-28, 6-15

Ohio State

Illinois

Kay, Farley and Tolley Key 4-1 Series-Clinching Win at Illinois

5/3/2025 4:32:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

Buckeyes finish the regular season with a 43-11-1 record

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Backed by a complete game three-hitter from pitcher Kennedy Kay and a sixth-inning home run off the bat of Emma Tolley, the Ohio State softball team (43-11-1, 16-6 Big Ten) completed its regular season by securing a series win at Illinois on Saturday by a score of 4-1.

Kay, who improved to 13-3 on the season, pitched four innings on hit-less softball and walked just one Illini batter. The Buckeyes scored all four of their runs off home runs – specially, a two-run shot by Kaitlyn Farley in the first inning and Tolley's two-run blast in the sixth.

Ohio State concluded Big Ten regular season play with 16 wins and took all six if its three-game weekend series. The Buckeyes were also 7-4 on the road against Big Ten competition.

How It Happened

Kaitlyn Farley's two-run home run in the top of the first inning gave the Buckeyes a lead before they even went on defense. The homer was her 12th of the season and it drove in Hadley Parisien, who started the game with a walk.
Illinois did not get its first hit of the game until the bottom of the fifth inning, and that frame ended with the Illini connecting on a two-out single that plated a run to cut the Ohio State lead to 2-1. Further damage was avoided, however, on a 9-2-6 putout at second base on the run-scoring play.
The Buckeyes seized the momentum back in the top half of the sixth inning thanks to Emma Tolley. Making her first start of the year, Tolley delivered a two-run home run over the right field fence that made the score 4-1 in Ohio State's favor.

Buckeye This and That

Kami Kortokrax had her second multi-hit game of the series, finishing 2-for-3 with a pair of singles. She had five hits on the weekend, including a home run in Friday's opening game.
The Buckeyes won all six of their three-game weekend series during the regular season. That included taking two of three games versus Indiana, Penn State and Illinois and with sweeps of Michigan, Purdue and Michigan State.

What's Next
With the regular season now complete, the Buckeyes will turn their attention to the Big Ten Tournament, which gets underway next week in West Lafayette, Ind. on the campus of Purdue University. The conference will announce the seedings tomorrow at the completion of this weekend's series.

All 11 games played next week will be broadcast live on BTN. Links to live stats can be found on the schedule page of OhioStateBuckeyes.com.