ROSEMONT, Ill. – Sara Serena's (Kankakee, Ill./Kankakee) walk-off double in the bottom of the ninth lifted Lewis' softball team to a 3-2 over Wayne State in the nightcap of the Lewis Dome Invitational on Thursday at The Dome at the Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, Ill. The Flyers (2-4) won their opener on Thursday 4-0 over Saginaw Valley State.
Game 2: Lewis 3 Wayne State 2 9 innings
The Warriors (0-1) broke the scoreless deadlock in the fifth on an RBI triple to right off the bat of Rainey Psenicka. Lewis was held to just one hit through the first six innings by Wayne State's Paige Ameel before breaking through against her in the seventh.
Evie Calderon (Chicago, Ill./Whitney Young) battled through a lengthy at-bat before hitting the game-tying homer down the left field line on the 11th pitch of the at-bat.
The Warriors retook the lead in the eighth on Psenicka's single through the right side of the infield to score Gabby Kaple with the go-ahead run. The Flyers battled back in its half of the eighth as
Jalyn Powell (Tolono, Ill./Unity) dropped a single into shallow left to score
Carrie Anderson (Roscoe, Ill./Hononegah Community) with the tying run. Lewis had the winning run in scoring position but a groundout and a strikeout ended the threat.
Wayne State had the go-ahead run on third with no one out in the ninth but
Payton Wuske (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way East) got out of the inning unscathed as she threw out Sydney Bogden at the plate on a squeeze play for the second out of the inning. Wuske then got Mady Ruczynski to line out to Powell for the final out of the inning.
Ella Jacobson (Tinley Park, Ill./Lincoln-Way East) started the bottom of the ninth on second for the Flyers and came into score on Serena's double down the left field line with the winning run.
Lewis outhit the Warriors 5-4 in the contest and were led by Powell with two hits while Serena, Calderon and
Gabi Nilles (North Aurora, Ill./West Aurora) had one hit each.
Kaelyn Leverson (Atlanta, Ill./Olympia) got the start in the circle allowing one run on three hits with two strikeouts and two walks in seven innings pitched. Wuske threw the final two frames allowing an unearned run on one hit with two strikeouts to pick up her first win of the season and even her record at 1-1.
Game 1: Lewis 4 Saginaw Valley 0
The Flyers did their damage early in their first game on Thursday as they scored a run in the first, two in the third and one in the fifth.
Lewis took advantage of back-to-back one out walks in the first as
Kristin Kavalauskas (Oak Forest, Ill./Tinley Park) drove in the first run with a single up the middle.
The Flyers added two more in the third as Kavalauskas drove in Jacobson with a squeeze bunt to make it 2-0 and later in the inning
Maggie Joutras (Shorewood, Ill./Providence Catholic High School) drove in Kavalauskas with a ground-rule double to left.
Lewis tacked on an insurance run in the fifth as Serena singled up the middle to drive in Jacobson with the final run of the contest.
That was all the support
Delaney Garden (Carpentersville, Ill./H.D. Jacobs) needed as the freshman hurler set down the first 10 Cardinals and didn't allow a hit until a leadoff single in the fifth. She threw a two-hit complete game shutout in the contest with one strikeout and didn't walk a batter in the contest. Garden picked up her first collegiate victory to even her record at 1-1.
The Flyers outhit SVSU 7-2 in the contest and were led by Kavalauskas with two hits while Garden, Jacobson, Calderon, Serena and Joutras had a hit apiece.
Lewis is back in action on Saturday as it takes on Minnesota State-Moorhead at 11 a.m. and Ursuline College at 1:30 p.m. at The Dome at the Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, Ill.
