March 7, 2004

Box Score

Clearwater, Fla.-The Baylor Lady Bears defeated Illinois 2-1 in the semi-finals of the Speedline Invitational for the team's 14th straight win, establishing a new school record, before falling 3-1 to No. 22 USF in the championship game of the tournament.

In the opener, Baylor scored single runs in the third and fourth innings to grab an early 2-0 lead over the Illini.

Kelly Levesque gave the Lady Bears the lead when she scored after Harmony Schwethelm reached on a fielding error by the first baseman.

Kim Wilmoth made it a 2-0 cushion with her triple in the fourth inning, easily scoring April Luce from second for the eventual winning run.

A solo home run in the bottom of the inning cut the lead to one; however, Lisa Ferguson shut Illinois down the rest of the way to tie a single-season record with her fifth save of the year.

Wilmoth led the way for Baylor with two hits as Vitek picked up her 13th victory of the season to stretch the Baylor winning streak to 14 games and establish a new school record.

In the championship game against South Florida, Baylor fell behind by three runs and was unable to rally as the Bulls claimed the championship and snapped the Lady Bears win streak at 14.

Baylor scored a run in the sixth and had a chance to tie; but, Wilmoth's line drive to left with runners on second and third was caught to end the scoring threat.

Vitek saw her nine game win streak snapped as she fell to 13-3 on the season.

Despite the loss, Vitek was named the Most Valuable Pitcher of the tournament as Melissa Maler, Kelly Levesque and Stephanie Pomes joined her on the all-tournament team.

With the split, Baylor moves to 21-6 on the season and will look to start a new streak on Wednesday, March 10, when the Lady Bears travel to San Marcos, Texas, to face Texas State.