The Lawrence University softball team endured a pair of heartbreaking losses to Elmhurst College on Saturday at Whiting Field.
Elmhurst won the opener 4-1 and took the nightcap 8-7.
Lawrence (8-21) led 1-0 in the opener before Tiffany Potthast hit a one-out grand slam in the seventh to lift Elmhurst (24-13) to the win.
Rose Wysocki went 3-for-4 for the Bluejays in the opener, and Potthast pitched the final two innings to pick up the win.
Shannon Murray went the distance and took the loss for the Vikings. She allowed nine hits, struck out one and walked one. Kara Vance went 2-for-3 to pace the Lawrence offense.
In the nightcap, Lawrence built a 6-0 lead thanks to some shoddy defense and poor pitching from the Bluejays.
The Vikings scored four runs in the first on only one hit, and that hit didn’t figure into the scoring. Lawrence loaded the bases on two walks and an error. A passed ball scored Cory Paquette and a throwing error by the catcher on the play allowed Alex Chiodo to score. Scarlett Pucci then uncorked a wild pitch and Murray scored to put the Vikings up 3-0. Cathy Kaye then walked, stole second, went to third on a passed ball and scored on a wild pitch.
Lawrence scored two more times in the second when Chiodo walked and scored when Coley LaChance’s single got past Potthast in left field. Vance later singled to score LaChance to put the Vikings up 6-0.
Lawrence led 7-1 when the Bluejays scored five times on six hits in the fifth inning to cut the margin to 7-6. The Vikings then escaped a major jam in the sixth when the Vikings threw out two runners at the plate, including a strike from Kaye in center field to end the inning.
Potthast got the winning rally going in the seventh when she reached on an infield single with one out. Murray then got a fly out and had a 1-2 count on Clare Bukowski when she blasted a two-run homer to put Elmhurst up 8-7.
Lindsay Nauman, who pitched 5 1/3 innings of one-hit relief, set the Vikings down in order in the seventh to seal the win.
Potthast went 3-for-4, scored two runs and drove in two runs for the Bluejays.