ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University's softball team dropped a pair of close contests to William Jewell on Saturday afternoon at the Lewis Softball Field. The Flyers dropped the opener of the doubleheader, 5-3 in nine innings and lost 3-2 in the second game. Lewis falls to 12-24 overall and 4-12 in Great Lakes Valley Conference play while the Cardinals improve to 21-17 and 8-10 in the GLVC.

Game 1 – William Jewell 5 Lewis 3 Nine Innings
William Jewell scored a pair of runs in the opening inning on RBI singles from Courtney Beatty and Emily Hoover just four batters into the contest. Dara Sanders (Crestwood, Ill./Mother McAuley) settled down retiring three of the next four hitters to limit the damage to two runs.

Lewis got a run back in the second on Elexis Swartzentruber's (Normal, Ill./Normal Community) solo home run to left center for her fifth roundtripper of the year.

The Cardinals answered back with a run in the third. Ashlyn Sutton drove in Maddie Greenstreet with a single to center.

The Flyers chipped away at the with a run in the fifth on Cassie Shaw's (Moline, Ill./Moline) sacrifice fly to left center and then tied the game in the sixth on Kristin Kavalauskas' (Oak Forest, Ill./Tinley Park) solo home run to center.

Lewis had a chance to win the game putting runners on first and second with one out in the seventh but back-to-back strikeouts ended the inning.

Neither side scored in the eighth but William Jewell broke the deadlock with a pair of runs in the ninth. Hoover doubled to left just past a diving Sara Serena (Kankakee, Ill./Kankakee) to drive in Lindsay Glynn and Beatty with the go-ahead runs.

The Flyers brought the tying run to the plate in their half of the ninth but were unable to get the tying runs across.

Lewis had 11 in the contest and was led by Cierra Taylor (Tinley Park, Ill./Andrew) with four while Swartzentruber, Maddy Beck (Racine, Wis./Case) and Lauren Brennan (Cantonment, Fla./J.M. Tate) had two each. Sanders went the first six innings allowing three runs on nine hits with five strikeouts. Shaw pitched the final three innings allowing two runs on two hits and two strikeouts.

Game 2 – William Jewell 3 Lewis 2
The Cardinals took a 2-0 lead in the nightcap three batters into the game. They scored on their first run on a double steal as Greenstreet stole home and Glynn stole second. Hoover drove in the second run with a double down the left field line.

The Flyers evened the score in the fifth. Allie Piatt led off the inning with a bunt single, stole second, went to third on a groundout and scored on Brennan's sacrifice fly to center. Taylor then tied the game with a solo home run to center.

After the rough start, Taylor Boelte (Rockton, Ill./Hononegah) settled down retiring 17 straight Cardinals at one point. WJC took advantage of two Boelte errors though with two outs in the sixth to score the go-ahead run.

Lewis had a chance to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth on a hit from Amy Bukovsky (Aurora, Ill./Montini Catholic) but Courtney Mahalik (New Lenox, Ill./Providence Catholic) was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.

The Flyers outhit the Cardinals 8-2 in the contest with Taylor and Jessica Lofthouse (Oswego, Ill./Oswego) recording two each. Boelte pitched a complete game effort allowing three runs, two earned, on two hits with three strikeouts.

Lewis returns to the diamond on Monday taking on Rockhurst in a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. at Lewis Softball Field.