CARBONDALE, Ill. — Illinois State rallied from a three-run deficit with a five-run seventh inning to defeat Northern Iowa 7-6 Wednesday at Charlotte West Stadium, advancing to face No. 1 seed Belmont in the 2026 MVC Softball Championship. Tatum Wolford delivered the knockout blow with a grand slam — her first home run of the game — that erased a 4-2 deficit and gave the Redbirds a lead they would not relinquish. Paige McLeod earned the win, improving to 19-5 on the season after allowing six runs over 6.2 innings, with Hannah Meshnick closing it out for her sixth save of the year.
Northern Iowa jumped out to an early lead, plating two unearned runs in the second inning on a Drew Hinrichs two-RBI single, then added another in the third when Katelyn Callahan scored on an error. The Panthers kept adding on, getting solo home runs from Brynn Acton in the fifth, Finley Netten to lead off the seventh, and Kate Lappe later in the inning to make it a 7-6 game. Callahan also had a strong afternoon, going 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI. But the Panthers' pitching staff couldn't hold on — after Ashlyn Enke and Morgan Vertz combined to keep Illinois State in check through six innings, Anna Wischnowski came on in the seventh and surrendered three hits and four runs in just two-thirds of an inning, taking the loss to fall to 12-9.
Illinois State's comeback began quietly in the fifth, when Ava Boyer and Ella Boyer set the table for a two-run frame, but the Redbirds' defining moment came in the seventh. With two outs and the bases loaded — helped along by a Sykora Smith error — Wolford turned on a 2-2 pitch and sent it over the left field fence for a walk-off grand slam that put Illinois State ahead 6-4. Hannah Meeks added an insurance RBI single before the inning was over, and Meshnick held on despite a late Northern Iowa scare. Illinois State will face top-seeded Belmont on Thursday at noon CT (ESPN+), while Northern Iowa's season continues this evening in an elimination game against the loser of the Murray State-Evansville matchup.
