The Lake Forest College softball team split a doubleheader with visiting Cornell College on Saturday, falling 8-0 in the opener before taking the second game 9-1 in six innings. Sophomore Alex Hemmer's second-inning grand slam helped the Foresters pull away in game two.
Hemmer's fifth home run of the season was part of a seven-run rally that began with a one-out single up the middle by sophomore second baseman Vasi Panos. After a fielder's choice groundout, junior centerfielder Kayla Borgra singled for the second time in the game and freshman rightfielder Tara Airola was hit by a pitch to load the bases. The Foresters scored their first run of the day when senior shortstop Sam Ritsema was also hit by a pitch and took a 2-1 lead when sophomore first baseman Sally Snarski drew a walk. The Rams' starting pitcher was pulled and Hemmer greeted the reliever with a shot over the centerfield fence. Sophomore third baseman Kaleigh Ambrose then reached second on an error by the Cornell shortstop and scored on a base hit by freshman pitcher Jenny McTague.
Ritsema belted her sixth home run of the season in the bottom of the fourth inning and Borgra ended the contest on her fourth round-tripper of the year to lead off the sixth.
McTague pitched out of a couple of jams late in the contest, stranding the bases loaded in the fifth and leaving a pair of Rams on base in the sixth. She scattered seven base hits while striking out six and walking two in the contest. McTague is now 10-2 with a 1.19 earned run average on the season.
Lake Forest's three home runs on the day gave the team a program record 35 on the year, surpassing the previous mark of 32 set in 2007.
While not much went right for the Foresters in game one of the doubleheader, sophomore pitcher Jessi Werner did record 10 strikeouts in the contest and became just the second player in team history with at least 100 strikeouts in a season.
Cornell's triumph in the opener made game two a battle for the right to host next weekend's Midwest Conference Championship Tournament, which goes to the first-place team in the South Division in even-numbered years. Lake Forest has hosted the event every other season since 2002.
The Foresters are now 21-8 overall and 7-1 in divisional play. Cornell finished the regular season 24-9 overall and 7-3 in the division. A Lake Forest victory in either of the team's games against visiting Grinnell College on Sunday would give Monmouth College the tiebreaker over Cornell for the division's second spot in the four-team championship tournament.
Sunday's games against Grinnell will begin at 11:00 a.m. and will be the final regular season home games for Ritsema, the Foresters' only senior. Her home run on Saturday was the 19th of her career, tying her with Mallory Norton (2007-10) for third in program history.
