For the second time in three days, the Lake Forest College softball team split a doubleheader at home, this time falling 9-2 in the opener and taking game two 9-3 against Illinois Wesleyan University.

The Forester outfield, made up of sophomore Brooke Swiecke in left, freshman Kaia Mismash in center, and sophomore Emmie Nyen in right, showed off their range throughout the doubleheader and contributed to a third of the outs in the two games combined. Among Swiecke's six putouts were a diving catch she turned into a double play in the first inning of game one and a high-reaching grab while running toward the outfield fence two frames later.

Nyen also excelled at the plate, collecting a pair of base hits in each contest. She singled in a pair of runs in the first inning of game two, drove in another on a groundout in the third, and doubled and scored in the sixth.

Sophomore catcher Kyla Chevalier, freshman designated player Jolie Devalk, and freshman second baseman Lia Taglia also had two hits apiece in game two.

The Foresters jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first inning and answered the Titans' first run of the game in the top of the third with two more tallies in the bottom of the inning. Illinois Wesleyan plated on more in the fourth to make the score 7-2 but a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth put the home team on top 9-2. 

An unearned run off Lake Forest junior pitcher Brooke Challe in the seventh accounted for the final score. She went the distance in the circle, allowing just six base hits while striking out three. Challe is now 3-1 with a 3.21 earned run average on the season.

Both of the Foresters' runs in the opener came on solo home runs. Sophomore third baseman Cadence Demspey belted her second of the season in the first inning and Chevalier hit her fourth of 2024 and 10th of her career in the fourth.

The Titans tied the score in the top of the third, took a 3-1 lead an inning later, rallied for five runs in the fifth, and tacked on one more in the sixth.

Mismash had one of Lake Forest's seven base hits in the opener but her season-opening 14-game hitting streak was snapped in game two. It matched the ninth-longest streak in program history.

The Foresters' 2024 Mia Gurevitz Award was presented to sophomore pitcher Kayla Collins between games. Collins is 8-3 with a 2.83 earned run average and owns a .378 batting average in her career. The business major was an Academic All-Midwest Conference honoree last season.

Saturday's split left Lake Forest at 8-8 and Illinois Wesleyan at 11-5 on the season.

The Foresters will travel to North Central College on Wednesday for a 3:00 p.m. doubleheader.