May 19, 2006
IOWA CITY, IA – California pitcher Kristina Thorson struck out 14 batters en route to a 1-0 triumph over Illinois State Saturday night at Pearl Field. The victory improves fourth-ranked California’s record to 44-12 on the season and advances to play Nebraska Saturday at 2 p.m. (CDT). Illinois State falls to 37-15 and will play Iowa in an elimination game Saturday at 4:30 p.m. (CDT).
California scored the game’s only run in the bottom of the first. Alex Sutton opened the contest with a single to left and then advanced to second after a wild pitch. Two batters later, Haley Woods plated Sutton on an RBI single to right to claim the early 1-0 advantage. The RBI was Woods’ team-leading 52nd of the season.
After yielding the first inning run, Illinois State pitcher Stacy Birk retired 13-straight batters to keep the Redbirds within reach. The junior struck out four and yielded only four hits in suffering only her tenth loss of the year.
Thorson scattered four hits en route to her 33rd win. She notched her 400th strikeout of the year when she sat down the game’s first batter. She has not allowed a single run in 27-straight innings of work. Illinois State advanced only one runner to second base, Amber Smith in the fourth.