The Lake Forest College softball team was defeated 5-2 and 2-1
by Wheaton College at home on Wednesday (April 14) as the teams
made up a doubleheader that was originally scheduled for March 20
but postponed due to weather. The Foresters fell to 14-10-1 on the
season while the Thunder raised their record to 18-14.
Freshman Megan
Harkins (Homewood, Ill./Homewood-Flossmoor) doubled in both
Forester runs in the bottom of the fifth inning of the opener. The
line drive to left centerfield drove in seniors Shelby Neill
(Manitou Beach, Mich./Lenawee Christian) and Jill Pfund
(Morenci, Mich./Morenci) and cut the Wheaton lead to 3-2.
The visitors, however, tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the
seventh inning and held on for the victory.
Lake Forest was out-hit 10-4 in the contest. Neill had a pair of
singles and Harkin's double was the only extra base hit of the game
for either team.
The Foresters took the early lad in game two. Harkins reached on an
error to lead off the bottom of the first inning and advanced all
the way to third base on a sacrifice bunt. She then scored on a
double by senior Tracy Rainey
(Roselle, Ill./Lake Park).
Freshman pitcher Molly
Thomsen (Rumford, R.I./St. Mary Academy) held the Thunder
scoreless until the fifth inning when back-to-back singles up the
middle plated a pair of runs. Classmate Jordan
Ratliff (Petersburg, Mich./Summerfield), who pitched all of
game one, came on in relief with no outs and a runner on first in
the sixth inning and kept Wheaton from adding to the lead.
The visitors had just six singles while Lake Forest managed only
three hits, including Rainey's double, in the contest.
The Foresters will play four Midwest Conference games on the road
this weekend (April 17-18). Lake Forest will take on Illinois
College twice on Saturday and Monmouth College twice on Sunday.
Both doubleheaders will begin at 1:00 p.m.