The Forester softball team defeated Ripon College 6-4 Friday morning in game one of the 2026 Midwest Conference Tournament at Illinois College. Weather and field conditions delayed Lake Forest's game four match-up with Illinois College to Saturday at 10:00 a.m.
The key moment in the victory over Ripon came in the bottom of the second inning. After a walk to senior first baseman
Kyla Chevalier and a double off the left field fence by sophomore designated player
Nicole Marceau with no outs, the Ripon pitcher was able to get two outs without surrendering a run and was one strike away from escaping the jam unscathed when senior right fielder
Emmie Nyen blasted a long home run to right field to make the score 3-0. It was Nyen's fourth homer of the season and the 11th of her career.
After the Red Hawks got on the scoreboard with a run in the top of the third, the Foresters answered with two in the bottom of the inning. Junior shortstop scored the first on a throwing error by the Ripon catcher and junior second baseman
Lia Taglia, who stole second on that play, came in on a sacrifice fly by Chevalier.
Another Red Hawk error brought home Taglia in the fifth with the Foresters' final run of the game.
Ripon rallied for three runs in the top of the sixth but were unable to score in the seventh as Forester senior pitcher
Morgan Traxinger got the last three outs for her first career save. Classmate
Riley Stiles pitched the first six innings and allowed just three runs on seven hits while striking out a pair of hitters. She improved to 9-5 on the year and 21-10 in two seasons at the College.
Mismash and junior left fielder
Jolie Devalk each had two of the Foresters' eight hits in the game. Mismash now owns the third-longest hitting streak in NCAA Division III history at 37 games.
Lake Forest improved to 23-12 while Ripon fell to 25-12.
Illinois College came from behind to win game two against Cornell College 6-5 and Cornell extended its season with an 8-7 victory over Ripon in game three,
Game four, which was originally scheduled to be played Friday at 4:00 p.m., was moved to Saturday morning at 10:00 due to rainy conditions. The tournament will continue on Saturday with contests at noon, 2:00, and possibly 4:00.
