MILWAUKEE – Alverno College hit five home runs and the Lakeland University softball team was again bedeviled by close games as it lost twice Saturday in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference doubleheader.
Alverno won both games of the twinbill by identical 5-4 scores, including the first with a game-winning homer in the bottom of the eighth inning. The Muskies dropped to 8-16 overall and 3-7 in the NACC and also are now 1-8 this season in games decided by two runs or less, including 0-6 in one-run games.
The Inferno (14-14 overall, 6-6 NACC) hit three home runs in the first game and two more in the second. Alverno also came from behind in the first game before rolling out to an early 5-0 lead in the second and holding on.
The host Inferno in particular ruined Lakeland's own good work in extra innings in the first game. The Muskies had just scored twice in the top of the eighth, with
Calie Delisi (
Sr.-Oak Forest, Ill.) and
Paige Chladek (
So.-Chicago, Ill.) both delivering run-scoring singles. Alverno's Ashlie Rossi hit a two-out, two-run home run to tie the game again, though, and Andie Vandertie followed with a home run to almost the exact same spot in left-center to win it.
Lakeland lost the opener despite hammering out 13 hits and taking an early 2-0. Chladek finished with three hits and Delisi,
Hailey Jester (
Sr.-Salem, Wis.) and
Carly Brault (
Sr.-Brillion, Wis.) all added two hits each.
The Muskies also scored single runs in the second and third innings as
Meghan Etten (
Jr.-Elkhorn, Wis.) walked with the bases loaded to get the Muskies on the board and
Sydney Wickman (
Fr.-Quinnesec, Mich.) stole home on a double steal in the third. Alverno answered with a run in the bottom of the third, though, and then tied it in the sixth on a solo home run by Sam Korn.
The Inferno took an early lead in the second game, scoring three times in the second and two more in the third, including homers by Lauren Greif and Samantha Chapnick in the second inning. The Muskies chipped away but could get no closer after closing within a run in the sixth.
Niki Saviano (
So.-Orland Park, Ill.) hit a two-run homer to get Lakeland on the board in the fourth,
Madi Olson (
So.-Eau Claire, Wis.) doubled to score a run in the fifth and then Etten added an RBI single in the sixth. Saviano was stranded as the tying run at second base in the sixth, though, and the Muskies down 1-2-3 in the seventh.
Chladek totaled four hits on the day and Etten finished with three hits as well as two runs scored and two RBIs.
Lakeland is in action again on Saturday when it hosts Wisconsin Lutheran College for another NACC doubleheader. The games will be played at Lakeland but have been pushed back from an original noon start and now will begin at 3 p.m.
