The Lake Forest College softball team won 15-3 and 7-0 at Illinois College on Saturday in the Midwest Conference opener for both schools. Forester junior third baseman Kaleigh Ambrose went 4-for-8 on the day and belted a home run in each contest.
Ambrose had three of the Foresters' 15 hits in the opener and followed a home run by junior first baseman Sally Snarski with one of her own in the bottom of the fifth inning. It was Snarski's team-high fourth homer of the season and the second for Ambrose.
Senior rightfielder Kayla Borgra added a pair of hits in the game, as did freshman Callie Schaser, who entered the contest as a pinch-runner during an eight-run second inning. Schaser ended up scoring two runs and driving in three.
Lake Forest took the early lead with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first. Senior centerfielder Whitney Leiderman led off with a walk and Borgra followed with a single. An errant throw by the catcher on a double steal brought home the first run of the game and Borgra. Scored on a sacrifice fly by junior second baseman Vaso Panos.
Back-to-back-to-back doubles by Leiderman, Borgra, and junior catcher Alex Hemmer in the second plated a total of four runs. A fielders choice and a Lady Blue error scored two more and Schaser and senior left fielder Audrey Djukic finished off the eight-run rally with RBI singles.
In addition to the back-to-back homers in the fifth, Schaser doubled in two more runs and sophomore Sam Rosenfeld singled in another.
Illinois College finally go to the scoreboard with two runs in the top of the fourth inning and one more in the fifth.
Lake Forest junior pitcher Jessi Werner pitched all five innings in the shortened game and improved to 7-1 on the season.
Sophomore Jenny McTague was in the circle for the Foresters in game two of the doubleheader and allowed just two base hits while striking out nine batters without a walk. She is now 6-2 with a 1.70 earned run average on the year.
The second game was scoreless until a two-out triple by Hemmer followed by a base hit by Snarski in the bottom of the third inning. The Foresters added two more runs in the fourth when a single by Borgra brough home junior catcher Maddie Dieleman and freshman leftfielder Sydney Gardner. Ambrose followed a leadoff walk to Snarksi to start the fifth inning with her second home run of the day and third this season. Dieleman doubled in a run later in the frame and then scored on a single by Gardner.
Leiderman, Dieleman, and Gardner each had two of Lake Forest's 11 hits in the contest.
The Foresters improved to 13-3 while Illinois College fell to 5-7.
Lake Forest will host the University of Chicago in a non-conference doubeleheader on Thursday. Game one will begin at 3:00 p.m.
