APPLETON, Wis. — The Lawrence University softball team rallied for a Midwest Conference doubleheader split with Carroll University on Saturday at Whiting Field and captured the North Division title in the process.
Lawrence dropped the opener 9-8 in nine innings but won the nightcap 7-3 to take the North Division crown for the first time since 2005.
Lawrence (24-10, 10-4 MWC) will host the four-team MWC Tournament on May 1-2. Carroll (21-15, 9-5) also earned a tournament berth, and Lake Forest College and Cornell College are the South Division representatives.
The Vikings needed to win the nightcap to take the division title, and Lawrence got a superlative pitching effort from Jessica Demski and clutch hitting from Anna Wawiorka.
Demski went the distance, allowed six hits and three runs, all in the first inning. She walked two and didn’t strike out a hitter. Wawiorka went 2-for-4 and drove in four runs, and Katie Schumacher picked up a pair of RBIs.
Carroll grabbed a 3-0 lead in the first inning of the nightcap, and the Vikings rallied in the fifth inning against Carroll starter Hannah Miller.
Taylor Dodson and Marisa Thackston doubled and singled to start the inning, and Schumacher followed with a single to drive in Dodson and cut the lead to 3-1. After an out, Wawiorka ripped a double to left to score two more, and the game was tied 3-3. After a ground out moved Wawiorka to third, she scored when a throwing error allowed Amanda Jaskolski to reach and the Vikings led 4-3.
The Vikings went right back to work in the sixth and scored three more times. Lawrence loaded the bases on two walks and a fielder’s choice, and Schumacher’s ground out scored a run for a 5-3 lead. Two batters later, Wawiorka’s sharp single scored two more runs, and the Vikings were up 7-3.
Demski did the rest as she did not allow a hit after the first batter in the third inning.
The opener was a wild one as Lawrence built a 4-0 lead, had to rally to tie it in the bottom of the seventh and nearly tied it again in the ninth.
Schumacher, Thackston, Dodson, Kori Looker and Sam Belletini all had two hits for Lawrence, and Schumacher and Looker both drove in two runs.
Lawrence led 4-0 after four innings, but Carroll struck for three runs in the fifth. Kelly Strasser then hit a two-out, two-strike, two-run homer in the top of the seventh to put Carroll up 5-4.
Lawrence rallied for a run in the bottom half of the inning to tie it at 5-5 when Dodson singled and later scored on Schumacher’ single.
Carroll exploded for four runs in the top of the ninth, but Lawrence rallied again. Belletini led off the inning with a homer, and the Vikings then picked up four consecutive hits, including run-scoring singles from Schumacher and Duffy to cut the lead to 9-8. Wawiorka then flied out to left, and the Pioneers doubled up a runner at second to end the game.