The Lake Forest College softball team began play at the NCAA Division III Regional Tournament with a 5-1 loss to host Illinois Wesleyan University. Forester sophomore catcher Alex Hemmer belted her ninth home run of the season.
Hemmer's seventh inning shot was her fifth in her last six games. She is just the third player in program history with at least nine round-trippers in a season, joining Christy Condon '08 and fellow sophomore Sally Snarski in that club. Condon hit 10 in 2006 and 11 each of the next two years. Snarski has 10 this season.
Illinois Wesleyan, the 10th-ranked team in the nation, scored single runs in the bottom of the first, third, and fourth innings and tacked on two more in the fifth.
Lake Forest managed just three base hits in the contest. Senior shortstop Sam Ritsema had a one-out single in the top of the fourth inning and junior leftfielder Audrey Djukic bunted for a hit with two outs in the fifth. The Titans' pitcher tallied 16 strikeouts in the game.
The Foresters fell to 26-9 on the season while Illinois Wesleyan raised its record to 38-5.
Anderson University came back and defeated Fontbonne University 9-5 in the first game of the four-team, double-elimination tournament. Anderson and Illinois Wesleyan will play Saturday at 11:00 a.m. and Lake Forest will try to extend its season against Fontbonne, the nation's 21st-ranked team, at 1:30 p.m. The loser of the first game and winner of the second will meet at 4:00 in the final contest of the day.