The Forester softball team defeated visiting Robert Morris 8-0 in five innings on Sunday. It was Senior Day and each of Lake Forest's four soon-to-be graduates had at least one base hit and scored a run.
The game was scoreless until senior centerfielder Whitney Leiderman singled with two outs in the bottom of the third inning, stole second, and scored on a home run by senior rightfielder Kayla Borgra. It was Borgra's fourth home run of the season. Junior catcher Alex Hemmer and first baseman Sally Snarski followed with base hits and junior third baseman Kaleigh Ambrose belted her team-high ninth home run of the year.
Senior shortstop Raquel Ness started another rally with a base hit to lead off the Lake Forest fourth. Senior leftfielder Audrey Djukic followed with a single and both runners advanced on a wild pitch. Leiderman drew a walk to load the bases and, two batters later, a single down the right field line by Hemmer plated a pair of runs. A sacrifice fly by Ambrose brought home Leiderman, making the score 8-0.
Forester junior pitcher Jessi Werner allowed just three singles while striking out six batters without a walk in four-and-a-third innings. She improved to 15-1 with a 2.16 earned run average on the season. Sophomore Jenny McTague came on in relief in the top of the fifth and, after allowing an infield hit to load the bases, struck out two the final two batters of the game. Lake Forest pitchers surpassed 200 strikeouts for the season for just the third time in team history.
Leiderman, Borgra, Ness, and Djukic, who were honored on the field before the game, have now combined to bat .327 with 213 runs scored, 31 home runs, 156 runs batted in, and 64 stolen bases during their Forester careers.
Lake Forest is now 25-5 overall this season while Robert Morris fell to 7-33.
The Foresters will take their 10-1 Midwest Conference record to Iowa next weekend and play a doubleheader at Grinnell College on Saturday and at Cornell College on Sunday. Both twinbills will begin at 1:00 p.m.
