The Lake Forest College softball team played three Midwest Conference Tournament games on Saturday and, unfortunately for the Foresters, they came out on the wrong end of the score in two of them. The team dropped a 3-2 decision to host Illinois College, rolled 8-1 against Cornell College, and then fell once again to Illinois College 9-1 in five innings.
Weather and field conditions on Friday pushed game four of the tournament between Lake Forest and Illinois College to Saturday morning and the game did not start well for the Foresters. After going down 1-2-3 in the top of the first, they allowed each of the Lady Blues' first three hitters to score in the bottom of the frame.
The Foresters got back in the game in the top of the fourth. Senior catcher
Kyla Chevalier was hit by a pitch to start the inning and sophomore designated player
Nicole Marceau followed with a triple over the right fielder's head. Marceau then scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of senior right fielder
Emmie Nyen to make the score 3-2.
Lake Forest freshman pitcher
Ellie Adduci tossed five scoreless innings of relief, allowing just four hits while striking out one. Three Lady Blue pitchers, however, kept the visitors off the scoreboard after the fourth inning to preserve the victory.
Game five of the double-elimination tournament featured the event's 1-1 teams, Lake Forest and Cornell. This time the Foresters jumped out to the early lead with three runs in the bottom of the first. Junior shortstop
Kaia Mismash led off with a single to become the MWC's career leader in hits with 197 in just three seasons. Freshman second baseman
Laylah Gore doubled her in and scored herself on a double by Chevalier. An error later in the inning brought home Chevalier and completed the three-run rally.
A solo homer for the Rams in the top of the third made it a 3-1 game that remained the score until the bottom of the sixth inning when the Foresters plated five. The first run came in on a bases-loaded walk to senior center fielder
Brooke Swiecki and junior catcher
Paige Ratliff followed with a three-run triple. She also scored the final run of the contest on a throwing error by the Cornell catcher.
Forester senior pitcher
Riley Stiles allowed just one run on five hits in six innings in the circle. She struck out three hitters without issuing a walk. Classmate
Morgan Traxinger got the final three outs to send her team to the championship round.
Like they did in the first game of the day, the Lady Blues took control of the championship in the bottom of the first inning. This time it was a five-run outburst and the home team added one more in the third.
Lake Forest finally got on the scoreboard with two outs in the top of the fourth on the seventh home run of the season for Marceau, who led the MWC with four round-trippers during league games this season.
Illinois College, however, got that run back and two more on a home run in the bottom of the inning, making the score 9-1.
Lake Forest was unable to extend the game by scoring in the top of the fifth and Illinois College captured the tournament title.
The Foresters finished the season with a record of 24-14 and Cornell was 24-18. Illinois College will enter the NCAA Division III Tournament at 33-10.
