ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis' softball team snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 4-2 win over Saginaw Valley in the second game of its doubleheader on Monday at the Lewis Softball Field. The Cardinals won the opening game 5-3.
The Flyers improve to 12-22 on the season while Saginaw Valley falls to 14-14.
Game 2 – Lewis 4, Saginaw Valley 2
The Cardinals scored an unearned run in the first inning of the nightcap to take the early lead. Lewis evened the score in its first at-bat.
Maddy Beck (Racine, Wis./Case) led off the game with a double to left center, advanced to third on a sacrifice from
Jessica Lofthouse (Oswego, Ill./Oswego) and scored on
Cierra Taylor's (Tinley Park, Ill./Andrew) single to right.
The Flyers took the lead scoring three times in the second. Serena started the inning off hitting her first home run of the season to left center. Later in the inning, Beck drove home
Olivia Magaldi (Mishawka, Ind./Penn) and
Amy Bukovsky (Aurora, Ill./Montini Catholic) with a double to right.
That would be all the run support that
Cassie Shaw (Moline, Ill./Moline) needed as she held SVSU to just four hits in the contest. The Cardinals were able to score a run off her in the sixth but Shaw pitched a 1-2-3 seventh to secure the win.
Lewis banged out 10 hits in the contest with Beck, Lofthouse and Taylor accounting for seven of the 10. Magaldi added two hits as well. Shaw threw a complete game allowing two runs on four hits with one walk and five strikeouts to earn the win.
Game 1 – Saginaw Valley 5, Lewis 3
Saginaw Valley jumped on top in the opener with two runs in the second inning. The Flyers came back with a run in their half of the second thanks to a two-out rally.
Dara Sanders (Crestwood, Ill./Mother McAuley) doubled to left center, went to third on a fielding error by Becky Corbett and scored on Lofthouse's single into right center.
The Cardinals added to their lead in the fourth on a bunt single that drove in Corbett to make it 3-1.
Lewis tied the score in the sixth. Shaw led off the inning with a single and was run for by Allie Piatt.
Elexis Swartzentruber (Normal, Ill./Normal Community) moved Piatt to second with a sacrifice bunt and
Kristin Kavalauskas (Oak Forest, Ill./Tinley Park) drove her in with a two-run blast to left center.
SVSU regained the lead in the seventh on a two-run single from Jackie Popko with the bases loaded and nobody out. Sanders was able to keep it a two-run deficit by retiring the next three hitters.
The Flyers were unable to muster a rally in the bottom of the seventh.
Lewis was held to six hits in the game with Shaw recording two of them while Taylor, Kavalauskas, Sanders and Lofthouse had one each. Sanders was the tough luck loser allowing five runs, three earned, on seven hits with nine strikeouts.
The Flyers return to the diamond on Saturday hosting William Jewell in a doubleheader beginning at 12 p.m. at the Lewis Softball Field.
