The Lake Forest softball team completed its final nonconference series of the season Tuesday at Mohr Field, and the Foresters earned a split against North Central College.
 
The Foresters (23-14-1, 12-2 MWC) had its nine-game unbeaten streak come to an end in game one, as North Central pulled out a slim 2-1 victory. However, Lake Forest came back with a vengeance in game two by pummeling the Cardinals 8-0 in six innings.
 
Game 1: North Central 2, Lake Forest 1
In a pitcher's duel that saw the game still scoreless heading into the final inning, the Foresters came up just short in the 2-1 defeat in game one.
 
Pitcher Hannah Smith (5-6) took the loss despite pitching the complete game. Overall, Smith allowed nine hits and struck out four batters, while walking five. The senior pulled her best Houdini act throughout the game as Smith worked her way out of trouble time and again to keep North Central off the scoreboard.
 
Smith worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the first with back-to-back strikeouts to quell the threat. The right-hander from Riverside, Ill., left 13 North Central runners stranded on base for the game, and the Cardinals left at least one runner in scoring position in all seven innings.
 
Ultimately, a two-run double in the top of the seventh inning from the Cardinals proved to be the difference in a game where runs proved difficult to come by.
 
The Foresters rallied in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff double from third basemen Cadence Dempsey. Emmie Nyen then reached on a bunt single and stole second base to put the tying run in scoring position and the winning run at the plate.
 
Kyla Chevalier drove in Dempsey via a sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to 2-1, however, the Foresters could not bring the tying run home in their final at-bat.
 
Game 2: Lake Forest 8, North Central 0 (6 innings)
In the second game of the doubleheader, Lake Forest didn't waste any time putting runs on the board and cruised to an 8-0 win in six innings.

Junior Morgan Traxinger (3-2) fired her best start of the season in the win. Traxinger pitched all six innings, allowing just three hits and no runs while striking out a pair. Her six innings pitched was a new career high, and Tuesday was Traxinger's first outing this season allowing zero runs.
 
For the Eagle River, Ala., native, Tuesday's start carried a little extra motivation, as her sister Megan Traxinger is a freshman outfielder for the Cardinals. The siblings faced each other in the top of the fifth with Lake Forest holding a 6-0 lead. It was Morgan that will hold the family bragging rights for now, as she induced her sister to groundout to the pitcher and end the inning.
 
Kaia Mismash, Paige Ratliff, Chevalier, and Dempsey all contributed multiple hits for the Foresters.
 
Lake Forest pounced on North Central in the first inning with a two-out rally. Chevalier singled to score Mismash and get the scoring started, followed by a two-run double from Cheyenne Pellettiere, and Ratliff put an exclamation point on the rally with an RBI triple to give the Foresters a 4-0 lead after the first inning.
 
The Foresters tacked on a pair of runs in the fourth inning, another in the fifth, and finally, Dempsey ended the game with a solo home run – her team-high ninth big fly of the season – in the bottom of the sixth to reach the run-rule threshold.
 
The Foresters will return to action on Sunday for their regular-season finale. Lake Forest will hit the road to Monmouth College on Sunday for a doubleheader in its final games before the Midwest Conference Tournament on May 9-10.
 
Lake Forest controls its own destiny and will secure the regular-season conference championship with a sweep of Monmouth.