The Lake Forest College softball team defeated Ripon College 8-0 in five innings and St. Norbert College 9-4 on Saturday at the Midwest Conference Classic in Janesville, Wisconsin. Forester sophomore pitched Jenny McTague tossed a shutout and went 3-for-3 at the plate in the first game of the day and earned a save by recording the final seven outs in the second.
McTague allowed just four singles while striking out four Ripon batters without a walk. It was her third shutout of the season and athe fifth of her career.
McTague also had the second of three run-scoring singles in the bottom of the first inning. The first came off the bat of junior first baseman Sally Snarski and scored senior rightfielder Kayla Borgra. After McTague's base hit plated junior designated player Alex Hemmer with two outs, junior second baseman Vasi Panos drove in Snarski to give the Foresters a 3-0 lead. An RBI single by junior catcher Maddie Dieleman in the third inning made the score 4-0 and a two-run home run by Snarski in the fourth increased the lead to six. Senior centerfielder Whitney Leiderman singled in Dieleman and McTague in the bottom of the fifth to end the contest.
Snarski and Dieleman joined McTague with multi-hit games.
Lake Forest was cruising along again early in the game against St. Norbert. Panos singled in junior third baseman Kaleigh Ambrose and later scored on a double by freshman designated player Jillian Rashid in the bottom of the second inning. A base hit by Snarski plated Hemmer in the third and Ambrose followed with a home run, making the score 5-0.
The Green Knights, however, got on the scoreboard on a home run in the top of the fourth inning and rallied for three runs in the fifth, making the score 5-4. McTague came on in relief and got the last out of the inning and retired St. Norbert in order in the sixth and seventh for her second career save.
The Foresters responded to St. Norbert's three runs in the top of the fifth with four of their own in the bottom of the frame. With one out, Ambrose started the rally by belting her second homer of the game and team-high seventh this season. It was also the 15th round-tripper of her career, tying her for eighth in program history. Freshman shortstop Kat Beall followed with a single, advanced to second on a base hit by Panos, and scored on a Rashid double. Senior leftfielder Audrey Djukic bunted in Panos and a Leiderman sacrifice fly plated Lake Forest's fourth run of the inning and ninth of the game.
Forester junior Jessi Werner pitched the first four-and-two-third innings to earn her team-high 12th win of the season against just one loss.
The victories improved Lake Forest's overall record to 21-4 and MWC mark to 7-0. Ripon fell to 4-18 overall and 1-6 in the league. St. Norbert is now 9-13 overall and 4-2 in conference play.
The Foresters will close out the MWC Classic against Carroll University at 10:00 Sunday morning and Lawrence University at noon.
