APPLETON, Wis. -- The Lawrence University softball team dropped a 9-1 decision to Ripon College in the opener, and the Red Hawks rallied for a 7-6 win in the nightcap to complete a Midwest Conference doubleheader sweep Wednesday at Whiting Field.
In the opener, the Red Hawks jumped on Lawrence starter Catherine Marinac for five runs in the first. Jackie Reichhart had a run-scoring double, and Andrea Knorr and Megan Sockness both had run-scoring singles.
Lawrence (7-14, 1-5 MWC) got a run back in the first, but the Red Hawks (14-10, 5-1) pulled away with a run in the second, two more in the third and another in the fourth.
Knorr went the distance to pick up the win. She scattered seven hits, struck out five, and walked one.
Lawrence broke a 2-2 tie in the nightcap by scoring four times in the top of the sixth. Carrie Van Groll blasted her second homer of the season, a two-run shot, to put Lawrence up 4-2. Carli Gurholt then reached on an error, one of seven Ripon made in the second game, and Alex Goodson followed with a single. Amanda Hauser then singled to score Gurholt, and Goodson later scored on an error to put the Vikings up 6-2.
Lawrence gave it all back in the bottom of the seventh, as Ripon rallied to score five times. Ripon had cut the lead to 6-4 when Bethany Mehlberg singled up the middle to score two and tie the game at 6-6. After a sacrifice bunt moved pinch-runner Alli Jensen to second, Kylie Ainslie singled to score Jensen with the winning run.
Lawrence returns to action Saturday when it hosts Beloit College in a league doubleheader.