The Forester softball team traveled to Illinois College on Saturday and came away with a pair of victories, winning the opener 8-2 and game two 11-3 in six innings. Lake Forest junior outfielder Kayla Borgra belted her first home run of the season and scored four times on the day.
Borgra also drove in three runs on the day, the first in the opener on a base hit in the top of the third inning. Junior centerfielder Whitney Leiderman scored on the play, tying the game as two. A single by freshman first baseman Tara Airola and three errors in the inning brought home Borgra and Airola, giving the visitors a 4-2 lead.
Junior third baseman Raquel Ness and sophomore Sally Snarski, the Foresters' catcher in game one, had RBI-doubles in the second and fifth innings, respectively. After Lake Forest's fifth run of the game scored on an error in the seventh, sophomore second baseman Vasi Panos drove in two more on another double.
Freshman pitcher Jenny McTague entered the game in the bottom of the third inning after the visitors had pulled ahead 4-2. She did not allow a hit in the final five frames to earn the victory and raise her record on the season to 3-1. She also lowered her earned run average to 1.63. McTague and sophomore pitcher Jessi Werner combined to strike out nine batters in the contest.
Werner went the distance in game two, allowing just one earned run and striking out seven Lady Blues. She is now 5-3 with a 1.91 ERA on the year.
Snarski, who was 3-for-4 in the opener, repeated the feat in game two and two of her hits went for extra bases. With the Foresters already leading 1-0 in the top of the first inning, Snarski belted her second double of the day to drive in Borgra. She scored on a base hit by McTague and Panos followed with a base hit that plated Airola. McTague came home after a stolen base and errant throw, giving the visitors a quick 5-0 advantage.
After Illinois College came back with three runs in the bottom of the third inning, Borgra belted a two-run homer in the top of the fourth to make the score 7-3. Run-scoring singles by Panos and junior leftfielder Aucrey Djukic in the fifth inning extended the Forester lead to six runs and it reached eight on a two-run homer by Snarski in the sixth. Snarski now leads the team with a .450 batting average, six home runs, and 18 runs batted in.
Lake Forest out-hit the Lady Blues 13-5 in game two and 23-9 on the day. The Foresters are now 8-4 overall on the season and 2-0 in Midwest Conference play. Illinois College fell to 3-9 overall and 0-2 in the league.
Lake Forest will play another conference doubleheader at Monmouth College on Sunday, beginning at 1:00 p.m.