The Midwest Conference released its all-conference softball teams on Wednesday and four Lake Forest College players made the list, including MWC South Division Pitcher of the Year Jenny McTague and Co-Positional Player of the Year Kayla Borgra. Forester teammates Sally Snarski and Sam Ritsema and Head Coach Joe Kinsella were also among the honorees.
McTague, a freshman, leads the conference with a 1.11 earned run average and opponents have hit just .196 against her, the lowest mark in the league. She also ranks second in the MWC with 94 strikeouts and third with a dozen victories (against just two losses) this season. McTague's current ERA would rank second in program history and her end-of-season strikeout and victory totals as well as her winning percentage and strikeout rate will all likely rank among the top five in team annals. In addition, McTague is batting .296 with three home runs and 27 runs batted in this year.
Borgra, a sophomore outfielder, is an All-MWC South honoree for the second straight season and the eighth Lake Forest player in the last 10 years to earn at least a share of the MWC South Positional Player of the Year award. She leads the conference this season with a .757 slugging percentage and .532 on-base percentage and is tied for the league lead with 14 doubles. Borgra also ranks second in the MWC in batting average (.427), runs scored (39), and total bases (78) and is tied for third in hits (44), fourth in home runs (6), and fifth in RBI (28) and walks (17). Her current slugging percentage and on-base percentage would rank among the top 10 in team history, as would her runs, doubles, total bases, walks, and hit by pitch totals.
Snarski, a sophomore first baseman, also earned All-MWC South honors. She leads the conference with 10 home runs and is tied for the league lead with 36 RBI. Snarski also ranks second behind Borgra in slugging percentage (.750), tied-for-fourth in total bases (75), sixth in batting average (.390), and tied-for-ninth in hits (39). She is just one home run and six RBI shy of matching the program's single-season records in those categories. Her slugging percentage would rank eighth in team annals and she would also crack the top 10 in total bases.
Ritsema, a senior shortstop, will close out her career as an MWC South selection. She ranks among the MWC leaders with 36 runs scored (third), 44 base hits (tied-for-third), six home runs (tied-for-fourth), 71 total bases (sixth), 11 doubles (tied-for-sixth), a .645 slugging percentage (eighth), a .452 on-base percentage (ninth), and a .382 batting average (11th). Ritsema has climbed into the top 10 in program history in eight career categories, including home runs, where her 19 rank tied-for-third.
Kinsella was voted the top coach in the division for the third time in his career, having also earned the award in 2009 and 2010. His Foresters are 26-8 overall and finished the regular season with a 9-1 mark in conference play. On offense, they lead the league in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, runs scored, RBI, home runs, and total bases. The Lake Forest pitching staff also ranks first in the MWC in earned run average, opponent batting average, strikeouts, and shutouts (tied).
Lake Forest's four All-MWC selections were the most of any team in the conference. Monmouth College, St. Norbert College, Carroll University, and Lawrence University each finished with three.
Last weekend the Foresters won the MWC Championship Tournament for the seventh time in team history but first since 2006. They will begin NCAA Division III Regional Tournament play at Illinois Wesleyan University on Friday.
