ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The Lewis University softball team split its doubleheader with Maryville to end the regular season, falling 6-3 and winning 9-0 in six innings Sunday (May 2) at the Lewis Softball Field. Lewis finishes the regular season 25-16 overall, 16-12 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, while Maryville ends up 19-14 overall, 17-11 in the GLVC.
 
The Flyers have clinched a berth in the GLVC Tournament, which begins Thursday at Peoria's EastSide Centre. Lewis is the No. 7 seed and will face No. 2 seed McKendree (20-8) at 4 p.m. Thursday. The Flyers lost both previous games with the Bearcats back in March, 2-1 and 3-0.
 
In the first game Sunday, Maryville scored a run in the first inning and then added five unearned runs in the fifth to jump out to a 6-0 advantage.
 
The Flyers began to chip away at the lead with a run in the fifth inning as Kristin Kavalauskas (Oak Forest, Ill./Tinley Park) doubled to score Carrie Anderson (Roscoe, Ill./Hononegah Community).
 
Gabi Nilles (North Aurora, Ill./West Aurora) made it a 6-2 game in the sixth on a single that scored Katie David (Mapleton, Ill./Illini Bluffs) and an Olivia Magaldi (Mishawka, Ind./Penn) groundout in the seventh scored Elexis Swartzentruber (Normal, Ill./Normal Community) to make it a 6-3 game. The Flyers though were unable to bring the tying run to the plate as a strikeout ended the game with a runner on third base.
 
Cierra Taylor (Tinley Park, Ill./Andrew) reached base three times in the game and went 2-for-3 to pace the offense. Alyssa Callans (15-5) earned the win for the Saints, going 5.1 innings, allowing five hits and two earned runs. Reagan Smith picked up the save. Katie David (Mapleton, Ill./Illini Bluffs) (13-7) took the loss, allowing 12 hits and six runs over six innings, but only one of which was earned, while striking out six batters.
 
The Flyers struck four times in the fourth inning of game two as Evie Calderon (Chicago, Ill./Whitney Young) singled to center, scoring Sara Serena (Kankakee, Ill./Kankakee). Then Taylor singled home Magaldi and David. Jessica Lofthouse (Oswego, Ill./Oswego) finished off the scoring in the inning with a sacrifice fly, scoring Calderon.
 
Calderon added to that score in the fifth inning when she belted a three-run home run to center to make it a 7-0 Lewis lead.
 
David ended the game in the sixth inning with a single, scoring Serena and Meghan Bontrager (Milford, Ind./Northridge).
 
David went 3-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored and two RBI, while, Calderon (2 runs, 4 RBI), Lofthouse and Kavalauskas all had two hits.
 
Serena (6-4) earned the win, going six innings, allowing one hit and no runs, striking out five. Olivia Jarvis (1-3) suffered the loss, allowing seven hits and four earned runs.