LISLE, Ill. – A pair of big innings for Benedictine University were too much to overcome as the Lakeland University softball team bowed out of its 2019 season with a pair of losses Sunday evening.

The Eagles posted wins by scores of 6-4 and 8-3 in a doubleheader that was delayed several hours but still played after several inches of snow fell in the Chicago area the day before. The Muskies closed out their season with a 14-24 overall record and finished up 7-15 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference.

Benedictine (27-13 overall, 13-9 NACC) did most of its damage in a single inning in both games. The Eagles scored five times in the fourth inning of the first game and then scored six in the third inning of game two.

The first outburst undid an early lead for Lakeland, which had built a 3-0 lead in the first inning. The Muskies took advantage of three Benedictine errors in the top of the first, with Cheyenne Mathas (Fr.-St. John, Ind.) driving in a run while reaching on an error and Morgan Schiedemeyer (Jr.-Menomonee Falls, Wis.) also adding an RBI single.

The Eagles scored a run in the third inning and then scored five in the fourth, with four hits in the inning followed by two Muskie errors. Lakeland got one run back in the sixth inning when Mathas led off with a single and came around to score on a hit by Taylor Bush (Sr.-Waukesha, Wis.), but could not add any more, stranding two runners in the sixth and another in the seventh.

Benedictine blew open the second game in the third inning, with the big blow a three-run home run by Emily Moore. Megan Fast also added a two-run double and the Eagles posted seven of their 11 hits in one inning.

Mathas and Rikki Vela (Sr.-Waukegan, Ill.) both singled to drive in runs as Lakeland scored single runs in the fourth, sixth and seventh frames. Meghan Etten (Sr.-Elkhorn, Wis.) also came home to score on an error and scored two of the Muskies' three runs.

Lakeland was held to nine hits total over the two games. Bush and Mathas both had two hits each, and Mathas finished the season with an 11-game hitting streak, the team's longest this season.

Vela started the first game and allowed five hits and six runs (three earned) in 3 2/3 innings with a strikeout before Lindsay Cudecki (Jr.-Chicago, Ill.) came on and pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit. Vela also started the second game and pitched two hitless innings before Leah Binsfeld (So.-Kaukauna, Wis.) came on and retired just one batter while allowing six runs. Elizabeth Groonwald (Fr.-Hartford, Wis.) came on and pitched the final 3 2/3 innings, allowing four hits and two runs.

The games were the final ones for four Muskies, including Bush, Etten, Vela and A.J. Zickuhr (Bettendorf, Iowa).