The Lake Forest College softball team won 4-2 and 9-0 at St. Norbert College on Sunday to clinch the ninth Midwest Conference championship in program history and the Foresters' third title in a row.
After surrendering a run in the bottom of the first inning in the opener, the Foresters trailed until the top of the fifth. Freshman designated player Alyssa Grimm and senior second baseman Vasi Panos started the inning with back-to-back walks and advanced to second and third on a sacrifice bunt by sophomore rightfielder Callie Schaser. Grimm then scored on a wild pitch to tie the game and Panos came home on a sacrifice fly by senior catcher Alex Hemmer.
St. Norbert, however, plated a run in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game and the score remained 2-2 until the seventh.
Grimm singled to lead off the final frame, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Panos and to third on a groundout. Sophomore leftfielder Sydney Gardner and Hemmer then belted back-to-back triples to give the Foresters a 4-2 lead.
Senior pitcher Jessi Werner started for Lake Forest and struck out six batters without issuing a walk in five innings. Junior Jenny McTague came on in relief after a leadoff single in the bottom of the sixth and retired all six batters she faced to earn the victory.
McTague was nearly perfect in game two, allowing only one baserunner on a second inning error. She recorded her only strikeout of the game in the first inning and the Green Knights had 18 groundouts, including nine in a row before a lineout to end the game and the 17th no-hitter in team history. McTague joined Werner as the only pitchers in program history with two no-hitters in a season. She is now 10-6 with a 2.89 earned run average on the year.
The Foresters scored in each of the first four innings, beginning with a two-run first. Gardner led off with a single, stole second, and advanced to third on a base hit by Hemmer, who also stole second. Back-to-back groundouts by senior third baseman Kaleigh Ambrose and first baseman Sally Snarski drove in the runs and staked McTague to a two-run lead before she even stepped in the circle.
McTague helped her own cause by singling in Grimm in the top of the second.
Ambrose had an RBI-double in the third and plated two runs on another two-bagger in the fourth. Grimm also drove in a run on a base hit in the third.
After a pair of scoreless frames, Lake Forest tacked on two more runs in the seventh on a double by Panos.
Grimm had three of the Foresters' 14 hits in the contest while Gardner, Hemmer, Ambrose, and freshman centerfielder Maria Zepeda added two apiece.
Lake Forest finished the regular season 24-11 overall and in first place in the MWC standings with a 18-2 record in league play. St. Norbert fell to 6-28 overall and 5-15 in the conference.
Along with the Foresters' league title comes the right to host next weekend's MWC Tournament. The double-elimination event will begin Friday morning at 10:00 with second-place Monmouth College taking on third-place Carroll University. Lake Forest will then host fourth-place Illinois College at noon. The first round losers will face off in an elimination game at 2:00 Friday afternoon and the winners will play at 4:00. Play will continue with games at 10:00 a.m., noon, and (possibly) 2:00 p.m. on Saturday with the tourney winner receiving the league's autmoatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
