The Lake Forest College softball team finished off a 2-1 victory over North Central College before defeating Hope College 4-1 and 2-0 at home on Saturday to win the NCAA Division III Regional Tournament title. Forester sophomore pitcher Jenny McTague earned the win in all three games and was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
McTague needed to get just two outs against North Central in a game that was suspended in the top of the seventh inning on Friday. The day started with an infield single, putting Cardinal runners on first and second base, but McTague induced a flyout to center field and struck out the final batter to end the game.
North Central, who entered the week ranked 16th in the nation and had defeated the Foresters 3-2 in the opening round on Thursday, finished the season 32-9.
Hope College, the 25th-ranked team in the country, defeated #8 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater 10-7 on Thursday and blanked North Central 5-0 on Friday to reach Saturday as the tournament's only unbeaten team.
The Foresters jumped out to the early lead on a squeeze play in the top of the first inning. Junior Alex Hemmer laid down the bunt to score senior centerfielder Whitney Leiderman from third base. Leiderman had walked to lead off the game and advanced one base on a wild pitch and another on a passed ball.
McTague kept the Flying Dutch off the scoreboard until the bottom of the sixth inning when the leadoff hitter singled, stole second, reached third on a wild pitch, and came home on a groundout.
Lake Forest responded quickly, scoring three times in the top of the seventh. Junior second baseman led off the frame with a base hit and senior leftfielder Audrey Djukic added a one-out bunt single. Two batters later, senior rightfielder Kayla Borgra hit a slow grounder to the third baseman, whose throw to first was wide and brought home a run. Hemmer followed with a two-run double to right-center field to give the Foresters a 4-1 advantage.
Junior pitcher Jessi Werner came on pitch the seventh and retired all three batters she faced to earn her school record fourth save of the year.
Werner was the starter in the final game and worked around five Hope hits and a pair of Forester errors in five shutout innings. She struck out four batters without issuing a walk, raising her program record strikeout total to 189. She also lowered her earned run average on the season to 1.93.
McTague left a runner on base in the top of the sixth, setting up the Foresters fourth straight victory in their last at-bat.
Borgra, who had two of the home team's four hits in the contest, singled with one out in the bottom of the sixth and Hemmer followed with a base hit just inside the right field line. Junior first baseman Sally Snarski then drew her eighth walk of the tournament to load the bases. A fielder's choice resulted in an out at the plate and moved the other runners up a base. McTague was the next hitter and a Hope infielder was unable to field her grounder, allowing two runs to score.
McTague retired the first two batters in the top of the seventh but the next two reached on infield singles. She struck out the final batter to send the Foresters to next weekend's NCAA Division III Super Regional against an opponent yet to be determined. McTague's three victories on the day improved her record to 16-6 and her ERA dropped to 1.57.
The NCAA Regional All-Tournament team was announced after the game and Borgra, Hemmer, and Werner were listed. McTague, who pitched in all five of the Foresters' games and allowed just two earned runs in 18-and-two-thirds innings, was named the event's Most Outstanding Player.
Lake Forest is now 35-9 on the season, breaking the program's single-season record for victories. Hope fell to 29-11.
The Foresters will find out who and where they will play in the super regional round later in the weekend.
