FOND DU LAC – The Lakeland College softball team hit the ball well but Marian University came through in the clutch to sweep both ends of a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference doubleheader Wednesday.

The Sabres won the first game 2-1 and also took the second game 8-4 to complete the sweep. The Muskies dropped their fourth straight conference twinbill and are now 6-18 overall and 1-9 in NACC play.

Both games went down to the late innings, but in both cases Marian (9-17 overall, 3-7 NACC) came through at the plate in the late going. That included the first game, when the Sabres' Emily Gorges hit a two-out double to score Tana VandenHeuvel from first with the winning run.

Lakeland finished with 10 hits in the game but only mustered a single run when Hailey Jester (Fr.-Salem, Wis.) singled to score Ashley Hough (Sr.-Rapid River, Mich.) in the top of the second to tie the game at 1-1. Jester, Hough and Bella Wilkinson (Fr.-Evergreen Park, Ill.) all had two hits each but the Muskies stranded nine runners, and Savannah Stenlund (Fr.-Rapid River, Mich.) took a tough loss in the circle after allowing nine hits and two runs in 6 2/3 innings.

Lakeland also piled up 11 hits in the nightcap, including a 4-for-4 game from Wilkinson plus two hits each for Jester, Hough and Mikayla Hilton (So.-Port Washington, Wis.). The Muskies also answered Marian's four-run fifth inning with four runs of their own in the sixth.

Jester doubled in two runs, Hough singled to score Jester and then scored later on a passed ball. The Sabres bounced right back in the bottom of the sixth, though, scoring four runs.

Lakeland steps out of conference on Thursday when it faces Mount Mary University for a doubleheader at Alan Kulwicki Park in Greenfield at 3 p.m.