EAST PEORIA, Ill. • Alton Marquette pitcher Alexis Silkwood became the all-time single season strikeout leader in Illinois on Saturday evening when she recorded her 500th strikeout during the Explorers' rain-shortened 5-1 triumph over Lisle in the third-place game of the lllinois Class 2A state softball tournament at EastSide Centre.
Silkwood, a 5-foot-4 sophomore left-hander, struck out Grace Riley on a 3-2 pitch in the bottom of the fourth inning for No. 500. Silkwood later got Stephanie Loconsole looking at a third strike for No. 501 in the bottom of the fifth. The game was stopped for the fourth and final time because of rain and lightning with two outs in the bottom of the fifth.
Marquette ended its season at 32-5. Lisle finished 28-6.
"Wow. I'm speechless," said Silkwood when told of her record feat. "At the beginning of this season, I wasn't coming out going for the record because I don't want to be number-hungry. I love that our team plays ball and I'm fine with that. I go out there trying to pitch my game with every pitch, every count, every batter.
"Good things happen to good people. We just really worked hard as a team and I'm really proud of these girls."
Saturday's game had been scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m., but a heavy rain shower at 4 p.m. delayed the start. After talking with IHSA officials about playing only a 5-inning game so the championship game could start at 7 p.m., the game was moved to another field within the complex.
The game was ready to begin at 5:58 p.m., but before the first pitch could be made, heavy rains forced the umpires to stop the game a second time. The game began 10 minutes later and lasted for about six minutes before lightning forced a mandatory 30-minute delay.
The game then restarted at 6:41 p.m. and lasted until 7:58 p.m. when lightning again stopped the precedings for good and Marquette was declared the winner.
Silkwood said "everything happens for a reason and we were patient. We wanted to come out and win because we wanted to get a higher place than last year" when the Explorers wound up fourth.
Third baseman Mia Stack provided Silkwood with the necessary runs when she clobbered a 3-run home run in the third. It was her second of the season and she ended the year with 26 runs batted in. The homer came off Bekka Houda (20-4) and it came after Stack battled Houda in the second inning in a 12-pitch at-bat in which she fouled off 10 pitches before grounding out to third.
"All I was thinking the whole time was base hit, base hit, base hit," Stack said of her second at-bat. "They (the balls) were just jumping off the bat. It felt really good."
Maddie Youngblood started the second with a one-out walk off Houda. She then stole second and went to third when Lions catcher Riley's throw sailed to center field. After Bailey McAfee struck out swinging, Kate Dunn singled to left scoring Youngblood setting the stage for Stack, who hit a 1-2 pitch far over the left-center field fence.
"I barely swung and it kind of flew," Stack said. "It felt really good."
The Explorers added two more runs in the top of the fourth when Silkwood had a two-out RBI single and she later scored on a passed ball. Lisle's lone tally came in the fourth when MacKenzie Buchelt had an RBI single to left off Silkwood (31-4).
"Rain is part of softball, so we told the kids to keep the intensity up and be ready to play when we got called back in," Marquette coach Dan Wiedman said. "I think everybody wanted to get the game in rather than have it rained out and called a tie. We're just happy we got the five innings in."
