Pitching staff helps Hoosiers defeat Illinois

Junior Alison Cooke continued her week of softball dominance on the mound by orchestrating a 5-0 win against Illinois Saturday. The victory was Cooke's second shutout this week, with the first coming in a 1-0 no-hitter against Miami of Ohio.\nThe triumph pulled the Hoosiers into a tie with Michigan State for 10th place in the conference. But the Spartans pulled ahead of IU with a 5-0 win against Northwestern. The Hoosiers played well in an attempt to sweep the Fighting Illini Sunday, but dropped a 2-1 loss.\nCooke (12-19) pitched all 14 innings against Illinois, giving up just one earned run and seven hits in fourteen innings of action. \nIt took 10 innings for Illinois to finally get some offense against Cooke, but the Hoosiers needed just three innings to explode for five runs Saturday. \nJunior speedster Monique Bullock stole her ninth base of the year to get into scoring position before she was sent home by sophomore Katie Joy's RBI single. It turned out to be the game-winning run, but the Hoosiers weren't done yet. Three batters later, freshman Heather Stillians singled to send two more IU runs across the plate. The Hoosiers came out of the third inning on Saturday with five runs on just four hits. \nSunday represented Cooke's fourth start of the week, but she pitched three scoreless innings to open the game. But the streak came to an end, and the Fighting Illini finally solved Cooke when freshman Lauren Gronski singled to right field in the bottom of the fourth. \nCombined with an IU error, Gronski's hit sent two Illinois runs across the plate, giving it a lead they would not relinquish. IU cut the lead to one when sophomore Stormy Hanson singled home junior Brooke Monroe home with an RBI single. But that was all the offense the Hoosiers could muster.\nWith the loss, IU falls to 16-34 overall and 4-14 in the Big Ten. The Fighting Illini improve to 46-21 overall and 12-8 in the Big Ten.