Contact: Brock Reisler, Assistant Executive Director, breisler@midwestconference.org
JACKSONVILLE, Illinois – Lake Forest College, Illinois College and Cornell College all picked up wins on the first day of the 2026 Midwest Conference Softball Tournament, as three of four scheduled games were completed due to weather.
The first game of the day featured No. 2 Lake Forest and No. 3 Ripon College. Lake Forest grabbed the early lead in the second inning thanks to a three-run home run, but Ripon responded in the top of the third with a run of their own. The Foresters went in front 6-1 through five innings, plating two runs in the third and one in the fifth. Ripon rallied in the sixth – scoring three runs to cut the deficit to two – but the Red Hawks could get no closer as Lake Forest took game one 6-4.
Game two between the top-seeded Illinois College Lady Blues and No. 4 Cornell was a quick-moving pitcher’s duel between IC’s Jordan Closs and Cornell’s Daelynn Rhoades. IC struck twice in the bottom of the second, but Cornell answered with two runs of its own in the top of the third. IC grabbed the go-ahead run in the bottom of the fifth, but the Rams responded with three runs in the top of the seventh – all with two outs – to take a 5-3 lead. IC, however, scored three runs in the bottom half of the inning to win 6-5 following a walk-off, two-run single by Alivia Darbe.
Game three, an elimination game between No. 3 Ripon and No. 4 Cornell, featured three runs early by Cornell as the Rams scored twice in the first and once in the second. The visitors tallied runs in the fifth (1) and seventh (4) to lead 8-0, but Ripon did not go away. The Red Hawks scored seven runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, and even brought the winning run into scoring position with two outs. However, a groundout with the bases loaded ended the game and gave Cornell an 8-7 win.
The Illinois College/Lake Forest winner’s bracket game was postponed to Saturday morning at 10 a.m. The loser of that game will play Cornell at 12:00 p.m., with the championship scheduled to be played at 2:00 p.m. The second championship, if necessary, will be at a time and date to be determined.