The Lake Forest College softball team blanked Trinity College (Connecticut) 4-0 before falling 4-1 to Concordia University Wisconsin in Florida on Saturday. Freshman shortstop Kat Beall had a pair of base hits for the Foresters in the first contest, as did freshman third baseman Jillian Rashid in game two.
Beall and Rashid combined to bat .500 (14-for-28) on the trip with seven doubles and eight runs scored.
The Foresters scored twice in both the second and third innings against Trinity. The first rally began when senior rightfielder Kayla Borgra drew a one-out walk and junior designated player Alex Hemmer followed with a base hit. Borgra came home when the Trinity rightfielder misplayed a fly ball off the bat of junior first baseman Sally Snarski and Hemmer scored on a sacrifice bunt by junior third baseman Kaleigh Ambrose.
Senior centerfielder Whitney Leiderman doubles with two outs in the third inning and scored on a triple to center by Borgra. A throwing error by the Bantams' second baseman allowed Borgra to finish her trip around the bases with the fourth and final run of the contest.
Four runs of offense was more than enough for Lake Forest junior pitcher Jessi Werner, who tossed her second shutout of the season and earned her fifth victory in as many starts on the trip. Werner allowed five base hits while striking out seven batters and walking just one. After retiring all eight batters she faced in relief against Concordia Wisconsin, Werner has a 1.10 earned run average and 49 strikeouts in 38.1 innings this year.
Concordia Wisconsin plated a run off the Foresters in the top of the third inning, two in the fourth, and one more in the fifth.
Lake Forest finally got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the seventh inning when senior leftfielder Audrey Djukic singled in junior Maddie Dieleman. Dieleman entered as a pinch-runner after Rashid led off the frame with a base hit. The Foresters left five runners on base in the final two innings and were unable to complete the comeback and keep their perfect record on the season intact.
The nine-game winning streak matches the fourth-longest run in program history, trainling only last season's school record 13 straight wins, the 12 in a row the 1986 team won to start the season, and the 2004 Foresters' 10-game streak.
Lake Forest's first doubleheader after returning from Florida is scheduled for Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. against Elmhurst College. The games will be played at The Ballpark at Rosemont, home of the Chicago Bandits of the National Pro Fastpitch League.
