The Lake Forest College softball team claim the seventh Midwest Conference championship in program history by defeating visiting St. Norbert College 3-0 on Saturday. The Foresters are now 26-8 this season and will advance to the NCAA Division III Tournament, which will begin next weekend.
Lake Forest reached the championship game of the double-elimination tournament by posting an 8-0 five-inning victory over Lawrence University and a 3-1 triumph against St. Norbert on Friday. The Green Knights split their games on Friday and defeated Monmouth College 3-1 Saturday morning to reach the championship round.
Forester sophomore pitcher Jessi Werner turned in her second complete game shutout of the weekend and third in a row overall. She limited St. Norbert to just a pair of base hits while striking out 10 batters and walking two in the contest.
Lake Forest took the lead on back-to-back run-scoring singles up the middle by sophomore first baseman Sally Snarski and catcher Alex Hemmer in the top of the third inning. Junior centerfielder Kayla Borgra had drawn a one-out walk and senior shortstop Sam Ritsema singled with two outs, setting up an RBI opportunity for Snarski.
Borgra tacked on an insurance run in the fifth inning on her sixth home run of the season. She and Snarski were each 2-for-3 in the game and Hemmer also had a pair of hits in four at-bats.
The championship is the Foresters' first since claiming five consecutive titles from 2002 through 2006. The program's first league championship was in 1988.
Along with the title comes the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Sixteen regional tournaments will be played next weekend and a new super regional round the following weekend will shrink the field down to eight. The National Finals will be played in Tyler, Texas, May 22-27.
Click here to watch the team celebration after the game.