The Lawrence softball team went 1-3 last weekend in consecutive series against Cornell College and Monmouth College. The pair of double-headers were played on Friday and Saturday respectively and were originally scheduled to be played at Lawrence before being moved to King Field in Green Bay.
In the first Friday game, Cornell opened scoring in the first inning right away with two runs off of a double from catcher Miranda Keith, while Lawrence responded with one run from sophomore catcher and outfielder Mattigan Haller, who made it home on a flyout to right field from senior Mikayla Jeneske. After a scoreless second inning for both schools, Cornell racked up six runs, aided by a trio of errors in the third. Lawrence’s four runs in the fourth inning—in which they also allowed no runs by Cornell—included a home run by junior pitcher and infielder Xiomara Rueda Marshall, but were ultimately not enough to initiate a comeback, as Cornell had another six-run inning in the sixth. The final score was 15-7 in favor of Cornell, and both Keith and shortstop Izzy Gullixon had scored four runs apiece for Cornell.
The second game of the series also went to the away team. While neither team scored in the first inning, Cornell had a huge second inning with a searing eight runs, accompanied by their pitcher, Daelynn Rhoades, striking out four Lawrentian players. Lawrence was unable to score until the fourth inning, wherein Cornell had three more runs. Both teams scored twice in the fifth, leading to a score of 13-3 by the end of that inning and a mercy rule bringing an end to the game. Ten different players for Cornell scored in this game.
Following the two losses to Cornell College, Lawrence had a much more impressive start to their Saturday double-header against Monmouth College. Lawrence began the game with two runs each in the first and second innings, preventing Monmouth from scoring until the third. Then, six runs for Lawrence in the fifth inning ended the game early. Contributing to a decisive 11-3 victory, three of Lawrence’s first-year players—Janessa Gonzalez, Gillian Guerriero and Adrie Villa—had two runs each, while Haller had three.
In the final game of the weekend, Lawrence was unable to keep up the momentum from their earlier win and fell to Monmouth. Neither team scored in the first inning, but Monmouth’s pitcher, Abby Leber, had her first two of an eventual nine strikeouts this game. Leber would go on to hit a double in the second inning that led to two runs batted in (RBIs) in a four-run inning for Monmouth. Lawrence struggled to score, remaining without any runs until scoring twice in the sixth inning. After seven innings, the score was 7-2 for Monmouth, leaving Lawrence with their third loss of the four games.