Junior second baseman Jillian Rashid belted her first home run of the season to help the Forester softball team salvage a doubleheader split with visiting St. Norbert College on Sunday. Lake Forest fell 5-3 in the opener before taking game two 3-2.
Rashid's second career round-tripper cleared the fence in left-center field and gave the home team a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning. The Green Knights answered with a home run of their own in the top of the sixth but got no closer.
The Foresters never trailed in the game. They took the early lead when, with two outs in the bottom of the third, sophomore centerfielder Maria Zepeda singled up the middle, stole second, and came around to score on a base hit to right field by freshman first baseman Riley Frisbie, who had a pair of hits in the contest.
After St. Norbert evened the score in the top of the fourth, Lake Forest regained the lead in the bottom of the frame. Sophomore leftfielder Abby King led off with a base hit and freshman third baseman Haylee Sherlund followed with a double to right-center field. Freshman catcher Sydney Wyatt's flyout to center field brough home King and gave the Foresters the lead for good.
Lake Forest freshman pitcher Missy Dieckman-Meyer scattered seven base hits and struck out seven batters without issuing a walk. Just one of the Green Knights' runs was earned and she improved to 7-3 on the season.
Seven of the eight runs in the opener scored on homers, beginning with a two-run shot by Frisbie in the bottom of the third.
The visitors took the lead on a three-run home run in the fourth and added two more on a longball by the same player in the sixth.
Trailing 5-2 going into the bottom of the seventh, the Foresters eventually put the tying run on second base. Wyatt led off the inning with her second double of the game and senior rightfielder Sam Rosenfeld followed with a base hit to right field. A groundout by Rashid scored a run and Zepeda followed with a single to right. She eventually stole second but was stranded there.
The split in Lake Forest's first Midwest Conference doubleheader of the year left the team with a 10-10 overall record. St. Norbert is now 5-9 overall and 3-1 in the league.
The Foresters will continue conference play at home next weekend when they host Monmouth College on Saturday and Grinnell College on Sunday.