The Lawrence University softball team swept a Midwest Conference doubleheader from Carroll University in dramatic fashion on Sunday by the scores of 5-4 and 3-2.
Lawrence (13-4, 6-5 MWC) won the opener with a run in the bottom of the ninth and took the nightcap with a run in the bottom of the eighth.
Cathy Kaye and Alissa Geipel both went 3-for-5 in the opener, and Shannon Murray went 2-for-4 and drove in a pair of runs. Murray also went the distance to pick up the win. She struck out three and didn’t walk a batter.
Lawrence trailed 4-1 after the Pioneers scored three times in the top of the fifth, but the Vikings rallied in the bottom half of the inning. Kaye started the rally with a two-out single, and Geipel then singled sharply off pitcher Christine Roggeman. As Kaye swiped third, Roggeman’s throw got past Rebecca Menelle at third and Kaye scored.
Carli Gurholt was then hit by a pitch and stole second. Murray followed with a two-run single to right to tie the game at 4-4.
The score stayed that way until the bottom of the ninth. Kaye led off with a triple that deflected off Nicole Leden’s glove in rightcenter field. Geipel then hit a rocket past Menelle at third and Kaye scored the winning run.
In the nightcap, the Vikings got some more late-inning heroics to win it.
Lawrence grabbed a 2-0 lead with single runs in the second and third. Gaelen Lombard-Knapp had a run-scoring double in the second, and Gurholt had a RBI groundout in the third.
The Pioneers (13-18, 5-8) tied it with two runs in the sixth inning as Amanda Strutz and Leden both delivered run-scoring doubles. Carroll escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fifth, and Lawrence left runners in scoring position in both the sixth and seventh.
Lawrence ended it in the bottom of the eighth, and Perish started the inning with a line drive single up the middle. A fielding error on a sacrifice bunt put runners at first and second, and another sacrifice bunt moved them to second and third. Alex Chiodo then singled on a 1-2 pitch to leftcenter to drive home Perish with the winning run.
Chiodo, Lombard-Knapp and Kaye all collected two hits in the nightcap for the Vikings.
Perish, who carried a no-hitter into the sixth, went the distance to pick up the win. She allowed only four hits, struck out four and walked one.
Lawrence returns to action on Monday when it travels to Ripon College to wrap up the regular season.