PLYMOUTH, Wis. – The Lakeland University softball team received contributions throughout the roster in both games and defeated Alverno College twice in its long-awaited home opener Saturday afternoon.

The Muskies won the first game of the doubleheader 9-2 and then hammered the Inferno 18-0 in five innings in the second game. Lakeland improved to 3-1 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference and is 6-8 overall after finally getting in its first date at home after three previous attempts to play at home were postponed due to the wet spring weather.

The Muskies received strong pitching in both games, with Natalie Ziebell (Fr.-New Holstein, Wis.), Lily Pettit (Fr.-Rewey, Wis.) and Jenna Winge (Jr.-Homer Glen, Ill.) combining to allow just seven hits and striking out 13. Ziebell pitched a complete game in the opener and allowed four hits with seven strikeouts and one walk to earn her second win of the season, and Pettit threw four scoreless innings in the second game, striking out four before Winge came on and worked a 1-2-3 final inning with two strikeouts.

The Lakeland bats came around slowly at first but warmed up as the day went on. The Muskies scored single runs in the second and third innings of the first game in unusual fashion, including Lexi Howard (Fr.-Crown Point, Ind.) scoring from second on a sacrifice fly by Maddie Raske (So.-Tinley Park, Ill.) in the second and a third inning that included not a single ball hit out of the infield still producing a run when Reyna Rupnow (So.-Ixonia, Wis.) scored on the back end of a double steal.

Lakeland then scored four times in the fourth inning, including a sacrifice fly by Sam Marchant (So.-Green Bay, Wis.), a run-scoring infield single by Rupnow, an RBI double by Carlie Morrow (Jr.-Menasha, Wis.) and a single to center by Jordan August (Sr.-Schererville, Ind.) to make it 6-0.

Jacie Jones (Jr.-Prairie du Sac, Wis.) also added a two-run single to right field in the sixth to make it 9-2. Howard, Jones, Rupnow and Abby Heitman (Jr.-St. Francis, Wis.) all had two hits apiece in the first game to lead the Muskies.

Lakeland wasted little time taking control of the second game, scoring 10 times in the first inning in its largest scoring outburst of the season so far. Howard delivered the biggest blow with a bases-clearing three-run double to get the scoring underway, and Marchant and Peyton Harlow (Jr.-LaPorte, Ind.) both added two-run singles.

The Muskies chased Alverno starter Hailie Eschbach from the game after just six batters and without recording an out. Lakeland began substituting freely by the second inning and 22 different players received at least one at bat. Fourteen different players recorded at least one hit with Raske the only player to finish with two hits, 12 different players drove in at least one run and 16 different players scored at least one run. The Muskies' fourth and final time at bat included six more runs, including a two-run single by Grace Portenier (Jr.-Sheboygan, Wis.) and an RBI single by Maddie Klauer (So.-Fort Atkinson, Wis.) to close the scoring.

Lakeland is in action again tomorrow when it hosts Edgewood College for a doubleheader starting at noon.