Contact: Jenna McElroy, Sports Info & Social Media Intern, mcelroy@midwestconference.org
 
Game 3 Box Score | Game 4 Box Score | Tournament Page
 
WHEELING, Ill. – In the afternoon of the 2019 Midwest Conference (MWC) Softball Tournament, Grinnell College avoided elimination by getting a walk off win over Illinois College before Lake Forest College used a fifth inning comeback to advance to Saturday’s championship game.
 
The MWC Tournament continues at 10:00 a.m. Saturday when the Green Knights and Pioneers play for the rematch with the Foresters. The championship game will be at 12:00 p.m. with the if necessary game two following.
 
Game 3 GC 1 vs. IC 0
 
The Pioneers avoided elimination when Ashley Wehrenberg delivered a walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh inning. Grinnell moves on to play the loser of Lake Forest versus St. Norbert for the chance to play for the MWC Tournament Championship.
 
Illinois College’s Jess Fieg and Grinnell’s Elle Adams were locked in a pitching duel as both held the opposing team scoreless through six innings. The Pioneers had multiply opportunities to take the lead as they left a pair of runners on in four separate innings. However, Adams gave her offense time to finally deliver the clutch hit as she surrendered just two hits in her seven-shutout innings.
 
Leila Bishop-Parise and Maddie Matsubara led off the bottom of the seventh with a single and double to put runners on second and third with no outs. Fieg was hoping to force extras by getting out of her fifth jam of the game but could only get one out as Matsubara scored the winning run on Wehrenberg’s sac fly to left field.
 
After going 2-for-4 in the Pioneers opening game of the day, Matsubara added a 4-for-4 performance and scored the game-winning run to keep Grinnell’s season alive.
 
Game 4 LFC vs. SNC

The right to move on to the championship game in the driver’s seat was on the line in game four of the MWC Tournament. Lake Forest used a six run sixth inning to remain undefeated while handing St. Norbert its first loss of the tournament.
 
The Green Knights put up two in the first inning as Ashley Zimmerman hit a two-run home run but the Foresters got one back in the top of the second on a Schussler RBI single. However, for the next three innings St. Norbert’s Alexis Tingley held the Lake Forest offense to one hit.
 
That offense finally caught fire in the top of the sixth as the Forester’s needed just four batters to take the lead. Diamond Owens led off with a single with Shaye Gauthier following with a double to put two runners in scoring position. Both would come around to score on Alyssa Grimm’s double to give Lake Forest their first lead of the game at 3-2. Maddie Trost then delivered the biggest hit of the game as her two-run shot down the leftfield line pushed the Foresters’ lead to 5-2. Kalnicky added a blast to center for the six-run inning.
 
St. Norbert got two back in the bottom of the inning, only for Owens and Gauthier to delivered back-to-back hits for the second straight inning, this time with Gauthier’s triple driving in Owens for an 8-4 lead.
 
Kyra Lenzi pitched the first six innings for the Foresters and allowed two earned runs on eight hits before giving way to Missy Dieckman-Meyer in the seventh. Owens and Gauthier combined to go 6-for-8 with three runs scored while Maddie Trost was 2-for-3 with two runs driven in and scored.
 
Ashley Zimmerman drove in three of the Green Knights four runs as she went 2-for-3 while Carley Frauenhoff scored twice.