The Lake Forest College softball team split a doubleheader at Dominican University Wednesday evening, falling 8-0 in five innings in the opener before rallying for a 6-2 game two triumph in eight innings.

The Foresters took the early lead in the second game when the second batter of the contest, junior third baseman Cadence Dempsey, cleared the left field fence at The Stadium at the Parkway Bank Sports Complex, home of the Chicago Bandits of National Pro Fastpitch. It was her team-high eighth home run of the season and 16th of her career, tying her for 10th in program history.

Dominican pulled ahead with two runs in the bottom of the second inning and the score remained 2-0 until the top of the sixth when a pair of errors allowed Lake Forest to pull even.

The winning run was scored by junior catcher Kyla Chevalier, who doubled off the left field fence with one out in the eighth and then raced home on a bloop single to right by freshman Bella Antonucci, who entered the game as a pinch-runner and scored the tying run in the sixth. Chevalier's head-first slide allowed her to avoid the tag on a close play at the plate.

Sophomore Jolie Devalk singled in Antonucci and, three batters later, and two-out single by sophomore center fielder Kaia Mismash brought in two more runs.

Senior Hannah Smith went the distance in the circle for the Foresters and allowed just five base hits and a walk. Two of her five strikeouts came during a 1-2-3 bottom of the eighth inning and she is now one of just seven pitchers in program history with more than 200 strikeouts in her career.

Dempsey, Chevalier, and Mismash each had two of Lake Forest's 10 base hits in the contest.

Game one did not go nearly as well for the visitors, whose only baserunner of the game, junior right fielder Emmie Nyen, was out trying to stretch a single to a double in the top of the fifth.

Dominican scored twice in each of the first two innings and had a four-run rally in the fourth.

The doubleheader split left Lake Forest at 15-13 and Dominican at 18-6 this season.

The Foresters will resume Midwest Conference play with a doubleheader against visiting Ripon College Saturday at 1:00 p.m.