VERONA, Wis. – The Lakeland University softball team's 13-game winning streak ended in the opening game of a doubleheader, but the Muskies but rallied in the second game to earn a doubleheader split with Edgewood College Sunday afternoon at Ceniti Park.

Lakeland saw its streak end in fairly bizarre fashion, as the Eagles scored 12 runs in the bottom of the sixth inning for a 15-7 victory. The Muskies answered with a hard-earned win in the second game, though, scoring three runs late to come back for a 3-2 victory to split the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference twinbill.

With 14 of 24 conference games played, the split leaves Lakeland (23-5 overall, 12-2 NACC) one game behind Dominican University (11-1 NACC) in the loss column in the conference standings, but also still one game ahead of the Stars in the win column. Dominican swept two games from Aurora University on Sunday to move into first place in the NACC.

The Muskies appeared on track for a win in the opener when they scored three runs in the fourth and two more in the fifth to take a 7-3 lead. Hannah Nelson (Sr.-Loves Park, Ill.) tied the game with a run-scoring single in the fourth, part of a day in which she extended her hitting streak to 21 games. Juliana Hall (Sr.-Portage, Ind.) followed later in the inning with a two-run double and Nelson added a sacrifice fly in the fifth to give Lakeland a four-run lead that it took into the bottom of the sixth.

Edgewood had been held scoreless in four of the first five innings, the hosts' only runs coming from a three-run home run by Grace Ott in the third inning. Everything fell apart for the Muskies in the sixth, though, with a combination of big hits, walks and errors resulting in the Eagles sending 17 batters to the plate in the inning. Olivia Hebert hit a three-run home run, and three Lakeland errors in the inning resulted in nine of the 12 runs being unearned against three different pitchers. The Muskies' win streak crashed in a big way, and Gracie Halfman's second hit of the inning, a two-run double, gave Edgewood the win in six on the eight-run rule.

Lakeland fell behind early in the second game when the Eagles opened the bottom of the first inning with a single and Hebert doubled to drive in a run for a 1-0 lead. The Muskies were still behind until fifth inning when they struck for two runs. Carlie Morrow (So.-Menasha, Wis.) was hit by a pitch with one out and later scored after Madi Johnson (Sr.-Vernon Hills, Ill.) bunted and reached on an error, with runners advancing on the errant throw. Hall then hit a sacrifice fly to put Lakeland ahead 2-1, and the Muskies added a run in the sixth when Peyton Harlow (So.-La Porte, Ind.) walked and later scored on an RBI double by Sydney Meyer (So.-Crown Point, Ind.).

Edgewood put together a big threat in the seventh, loading the bases with nobody out before Johnson worked out of a big jam. A sacrifice fly by Jenna Sanchez cut the Muskies' lead to 3-2, but Johnson got Camden Shepherd to fly out and then with the tying run at third struck out Kya Loffswold to end the game.

Johnson allowed five hits and two runs with two strikeouts for the complete-game win, improving to 9-1 on the season. Nelson and Maddie Raske (Fr.-Tinley Park, Ill.) both had two hits each in the second game, and the Muskies also played a clean game in the field with no errors after four errors in the first game.

Nelson finished the day with four hits, and her 21-game hit streak is tied with KC (Blahnik) Kuehl's streak of the same length for the longest for a Lakeland player since the NACC's first season in 2007. Nelson also is now two games shy of tying the conference record of 23 straight games in a season with a hit, held by Nikki Veen (2007) and Brooke Spencer (2013), both of Aurora.

The Muskies next will face Concordia University Chicago for a NACC doubleheader this Saturday on the road in River Forest, Ill., beginning at 1 p.m.