The Forester softball team split a pair of games with visiting Robert Morris University on Sunday, taking the opener 6-5 and falling 9-5 in game two. Lake Forest freshman right fielder Jessica Tucker belted her first career home run in game one.
Tucker's fifth inning blast made her the fourth Forester to clear the fence in the team's last six games. It also extended the home team's lead to 6-3.
Robert Morris plated two runs in the top of the sixth inning but senior pitcher Leslie Harshey held on to earn the save. She surrendered two runs (one earned) and strauck out one without issuing a walk in three innings of work. Classmate Cami Daun surrendered three runs in the first four innings to pick up the victory. Daun and Harshey pitched out of several jams and combined to strand 11 Eagle baserunners in seven innings.
The visitors actually took the early lead in the game with one run in the top of the second inning and another in the third.
Lake Forest turned that two-run deficit into a two-run lead by touching home plate four times in the bottom of the third. A base hit by sophomore designated player Clare Kavanagh scored the first run and sophomore center fielder Nora Logue followed with another single. Sophomore shortstop Sam Ritsema then singled in Kavanagh and, along with Logue, advanced an extra base when the throw home got past the catcher. Both runners scored when freshman third baseman Kassie Marsala extended the streak of singles to four.
Robert Morris came back with a run in the top of the fourth inning but the Foresters got it back in the bottom of the frame. Freshman left fielder Whitney Leiderman beat the throw to first for a one-out bunt single. She then tried stealing second and was safe after the shortstop dropped the throw. Junior first baseman Nikki Miller made the Eagles pay for the error by doubling in Leiderman for a 5-3 lead.
The Foresters had eight bast hits, each by a different player, in the opener and their 10 hits in game two were their highest total since returning from their Spring Break trip. Logue was 3-for-4 in the contest and leads the team with a .385 batting average on the year. Tucker and Leiderman added a single and double each.
Both teams scored once in the opening inning. Logue tied the game by racing around from first base on a dropped fly ball by the Eagles' center fielder.
Robert Morris, however, grabbed the lead for good with five runs in the top of the second.
A two-run double by Leiderman in the bottom of the second cut into the lead and a run-scoring two-bagger by Tucker in the third matched the Eagles' tally in the top of the frame and made the score 7-4.
The visitors scored one more in the top of the fourth and extended their lead to 9-4 with another run in the seventh.
Ritsema belted her team-high third home run of the season in the bottom of the seventh to close out the scoring.
Lake Forest is now 6-12 and Robert Morris 20-12 this year.
The Foresters will travel to Elmhurst College on Friday for a 3:00 p.m. doubleheader.
