JANESVILLE, Wis. -- The Lawrence University softball team rebounded from a difficult first day at the Midwest Conference Classic to win both games on the final day of the crossover tournament.
Lawrence (8-17, 3-6 MWC) downed Knox College 16-8 and then defeated Illinois College 8-3 on Sunday at Dawson Park. On Saturday's first day of the tournament, Monmouth College defeated Lawrence 14-5, Lake Forest College rallied for a 6-5 win over the Vikings, and Grinnell College downed Lawrence 10-7.
In a game shortened to five innings by rain, Lawrence scored in every inning to down the Lady Blues. Alex Goodson, Ellen French, and Hillary Cheever all had two hits for the Vikings. Goodson blasted a solo homer in the fifth and had a double, and French drove in three runs.
Meredith Foshag pitched 3.1 innings to pick up the victory. Emily Perish tossed 1.2 innings of hitless relief.
Lawrence pounded out 16 hits en route to a six-inning win over Knox. Goodson powered the Lawrence offense by going 3-for-5 with five runs batted in. Katie Simonson also picked up three hits, and Carli Gurholt went 2-for-4 and drove in four runs.
The Vikings trailed 5-3 when it exploded for seven runs in the fourth. Gurholt, Goodson, and Cheever all drove in two runs with hits in the inning. Lawrence added four runs in the fifth, including two on a Goodson double, and two more in the sixth to seal the victory.
Perish went the distance, striking out nine and walking two, to pick up the win.
Grinnell jumped out to a 10-2 lead after two innings and went on to the win in the final game on Saturday. Goodson and Cheeverl both went 2-for-3 against the Pioneers, and Goodson drove in six runs. Goodson blasted a grand slam in the bottom of the fifth. It was the first grand slam by a Lawrence player since she did it against Knox at the 2007 MWC Classic.
Lawrence took a 5-4 lead with two runs in the top of the seventh before Lake Forest got two in the bottom half of the inning to win it. French belted a run-scoring double to tie the game in the seventh, and Perish singled to score French to put Lawrence up 5-4.
Perish went 3-for-4 to pace the Lawrence offense, and French, Gurholt, and Jenna Reichel all had two hits for the Vikings.
Lawrence led 5-1 against Monmouth, but the Scots scored seven times in the third and added six more runs in the fourth to seal the win. Simonson paced the Vikings by going 3-for-3.