ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis' softball team split its doubleheader against Quincy on Sunday winning the opener 2-1 before falling in the backend 8-5. The Flyers are now 11-15 overall and 4-4 in Great Lakes Valley Conference play while the Hawks are 11-13, 3-5 GLVC.
Game 1 – Lewis 2, Quincy 1
The opener was a pitcher's duel between Lewis'
Dara Sanders (Crestwood, Ill./Mother McAuley) and Quincy's Mac Kenzie Collier. Sanders held the Hawks hitless through the first four innings while the Flyers mustered only one hit off of Collier in their first two at-bats.
Lewis grabbed the lead in the lead.
Elexis Swartzentruber (Normal, Ill./Normal Community) led off the inning with a single to left. She moved to second on
Olivia Magaldi's (Mishawka, Ind./Penn) sacrifice bunt. With two outs,
Maddy Beck (Racine, Wis./Case) hit a two-run home run to straight away center for her second roundtripper of the season.
Quincy had a chance to tie the game in the fifth putting runners at second and third with no one out. Sanders was able to get out of the jam with a pair of strikeouts and a foul out to short.
The Hawks cut Lewis' lead in half in the sixth on Morgan Heckman's solo home run to center field.
Sanders then proceeded to retire the final five hitters she faced to earn the win and improve to 6-5 on the season. She allowed only three hits with five strikeouts in the complete game effort.
Cassie Shaw (Moline, Ill./Moline) and
Sara Serena (Kankakee, Ill./Kankakee) combined for four of the team's eight hits in the contest.
Game 2 – Quincy 8, Lewis 5
Quincy took advantage of two Flyer errors in the top of the third to take a 2-0 lead. Lewis came right back scoring four times in its half of the third.
Cierra Taylor (Tinley Park, Ill./Andrew) drove in the first run of the inning with a single through the right side of the infield and then Shaw drove in two runs with a single back up the middle. Serena drove in the fourth run with a sacrifice fly to right.
The Hawks regained the lead in the fifth scoring five runs on five hits and two Flyer errors. Heckman had the big hit in the inning hitting her second home run of the day. This one was a two-run blast to center.
Lewis had its chances to tie the game in both the fifth and sixth innings. It loaded the bases with one out in the fifth but a groundout and a strikeout ended the inning with no runs scoring. In the sixth the Flyers saw their first two runners reach but were unable to get the key hit and left two stranded.
Quincy extended its lead in the seventh. With one out, Heckman doubled to center and Audrey Hermann followed with a single to left center.
Lewis got a run back in the seventh on Shaw's solo home run to center. Serena followed with a double and Kavalauskas singled to put runners on the corner with one out. The rally was snuffed out as
Lauren Brennan (Cantonment, Fla./J.M. Tate) grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to end the game.
The Flyers had eight hits in the second game led by Taylor and Shaw with two apiece. Shaw suffered the loss allowing seven runs, four earned, on seven hits with five strikeouts to fall to 3-7.
Lewis is back in action next Saturday as it travels to Rolla, Mo., for a doubleheader against Missouri S&T beginning at 12 p.m.
