On April 20, Elgin Community College Spartans beat Prairie State College in a 11-5 win in the Elgin Sports Complex. 

Almost 19 people stayed warm from the stands on a cold, calm day. 

In the first few innings of the game, the Spartans were making a few errors defensively. 

“I think most of it is just lack of concentration. This is one thing that has hurt our team.” Jim Such, head coach of ECC Spartans Softball. “We’re better fielders than what we’re producing on the field. I think it’s just that moment of focus when you need to decide that you’re making the play or not making the play, that the girls get a little distracted.” 

Such noted the team needs to work on improving their defense.

“That’s a point that we really need to work on, because we have to reduce our number of errors,” he said. 

In the beginning of the game, the Spartans didn’t score any runs. As the team were down by 1, they scored three runs in the next few innings which made the score 3-5. 

The Spartans were down by two runs at the end of the 4th inning, they scored five runs in the 5th innings to take the lead. In the 6th inning, they score three more runs to put the mark on a comeback win. 

Dan Williams, head coach of Prairie State College Softball noted the team’s hitting is what made Prairie State College score five runs in this game. 

“Heavy hitting and fast pace running. They were pretty aggressive at the plate the first few innings.” he said. “I was pretty proud of that, and moving girls around hard ground balls and line drives win games.” 

He mentioned what the team is good at and what they need to improve. 

“Strengths are hitting and aggressive base running.” Williams said. “Our weakness, I would have to say is after late in the game, we tend to get comfortable and we don’t stop laying off the gas pedal. Once we learn to keep the gas pedal down the floor the entire game, it’d be a different story.” 

Jim Such, head coach of ECC Softball mentioned the team’s slugging percentage of .326 this season translates into this game.

“I mean, we have more power than we have been showing so I would imagine that in the last week or two that we should be able to raise our percentage, because we’re not getting as many extra base hits as I would like, but we have the capability,” he said. 

He noted the team will 8 to 10 wins by the end of the season.

“I think so. I think we could have had more, but we’ve made some mistakes but I feel we’re right on track for that.” Such said. “I’m hoping to be more optimistic for the 10 than the eight, because now we’ve got seven, and I feel really good about us going and it looks like we’re going to make it.” 

Chloe Potter, first year catcher/utility player mentioned she usually hit at the right time.

“I just try my best to hit the ball whenever I can. I watch the pitches come in and I just wait until the strike comes in first. Then, I’m ready to swing and just hit the ball.” she said. 

She explains the strategy to get four hits in this game.

“I just watched the pitches come in, ready for the strikes, and went with it. I was one of them. I hit a hop fly, and I was surprised they didn’t catch it.” Potter said. 

Potter noted the team had their ups and downs but they managed to play better as the season goes on.

“I’m going to reflect by it. We started out a little bit slow, not winning as much but we were able to come back in a lot of our games like we weren’t.” she said. “We were close enough to winning a lot of them, but we fell short but I’m gonna remember how much we came back at the end of the season.”

The Spartans next game will be at home on April 20 at 5 PM.