The Lake Forest College softball team had its season come to an end Sunday on a 3-2 loss at Illinois Wesleyan University, the nation's 10th-ranked team. Forester senior shortstop Sam Ritsema and pitcher Jenny McTague were named to the NCAA Regional All-Tournament Team.
The game was scoreless until the top of the seventh inning when Forester sophomore third baseman Kaleigh Ambrose led off with a home run to left field. It was Ambrose's third homer in as many games and fourth this season. Junior centerfielder Kayla Borgra doubled in freshman leftfielder Tara Airola later in the inning and the visitors took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the inning.
Lake Forest sophomore pitcher Jessi Werner held Illinois Wesleyan to just one base hit in the first six innings but the Titans finally broke through with a single, home run, double, and game-winning single in the seventh. Werner struck out a pair of batters in the game and finished the season with 138 strikeouts, just 18 shy of the program record set by Nancy Findeisen in 2002. Werner's 14 victories and 17 complete games this year rank third in school history and she already ranks among the top 10 in team annals in career victories (23), complete games (27), and strikeouts (228).
McTague earned a save and a victory on Saturday and her walk-off single against Anderson University in the second game of the day sent the Foresters to Sunday's championship round. She was joined on the all-tournament team by Ritsema, who had three base hits on the weekend, including a grand slam, and handled all 13 of her chances at shortstop without an error.
The Foresters finished the season with a 28-10 record, matching the second-highest win total in program history. Lake Forest also set team records for runs scored, runs batted in, home runs, and total bases while the Forester pitchers combined to establish a new mark with 238 strikeouts.
Ritsema is the only senior on the squad, she finished her career ranked third in program history with 20 career home runs, fifth with 431 at-bats and 108 runs scored, sixth with 229 total bases, seventh with 139 base hits and 76 runs batted in, and tied-for-eighth with 26 doubles. Defensively, she ranks fifth with 270 assists over the last four years.
