Behind a pair of stellar pitching performances, the Lake Forest College softball team posted a 4-0 victory over Carroll University and a 3-0 triumph over host Lawrence University Friday at the Midwest Conference Championship Tournament. Junior Jessi Werner tossed a perfect game against Carroll and earned the save against Lawrence.
Werner, who had already pitched a pair of no-hitters in her Forester career, including one earlier this season, retired all 21 Pioneers she faced, including 11 by strikeout. She recorded a third strike against seven of the first eight batters she faced and her eighth punchout of the day was also her 157th of the season, one more than the previous program record set by Nancy Findeisen in 2002. Werner's fifth shutout and 17th complete game of 2015 improved her record on the year to 17-3 and she became just the second player in team history with 40 career victories.
The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth inning when junior first baseman Sally Snarski hit a leadoff double and senior pinch-runner Raquel Ness advanced to third on a passed ball and came home on a groubdout by sophomore Jenny McTague, the Foresters' designated player in the contest. Junior third baseman Kaleigh Ambrose had drawn a walk and moved up to second base on McTague's groundout. She reached third on a wild pitch and scored on another RBI-groundout by junior second baseman Vasi Panos.
Two of Lake Forest's fastest baserunners scored in the fifth inning, doubling the Forester lead. Freshman leftfielder Sydney Gardner drew a leadoff walk, stole second, and came all the way around to score when the Carroll shortstop misplayed a ground ball by senior centerfielder Whitney Leiderman. Leiderman went to second on the throw and, two batters later, crossed home plate on a base hit by junior catcher Alex Hemmer.
Werner's no-hitter was the 15th in program history and the perfect game was the second in team annals.
Lawrence defeated Cornell College 7-6 in the double-elimination tournament's other opening round game and Carroll knocked off Cornell 3-1 in the first elimination game of the weekend.
McTague was the Foresters' starting pitcher against Lawrence and she surrendered just two base hits while striking out five batters and walking two over five-and-a-third innings. She improved to 13-5 with a team-best 1.70 earned run average on the year.
Werner entered the game with runners on first and second and one out in the sixth inning. She struck out the next two batters to escape the jam. The only player to reach base against her on the day did so by getting hit by a pitch with one out in the seventh but she struck out the next two Vikings for her school record third save of the season. Werner now has 164 strikeouts and a 2.12 ERA in 132 innings this year.
For the second time on the day, Lake Forest took the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning. Hemmer singled with one out, advanced to third on a double by Snarski, and scored on an Ambrose groundout. Freshman Callie Schaser pinch-ran for Snarski and came home with the Foresters second run on a single by McTague.
Leiderman doubled and later scored on a fielding error in the bottom of the fifth. It was the 100th run of her career and she is just the seventh player in team history to reach that milestone.
Lake Forest is now 30-8 on the season, reaching the 30-win plateau for just the second time in program history.
Carroll (22-16) and Lawrence (27-11) will begin Saturday's play with an elimination game at 10:00 a.m. The winner will face the Foresters at noon and need to defeat them twice to claim the 2015 conference title.
