Romeoville, Ill. – The UW-Parkside softball team struggled defensively in losing a pair of games to Lewis University on Tuesday at the Lewis Softball Field. The Flyers scored late to win game one, 9-5. They came back to earn the sweep with a 9-0 win in the finale.
 
Parkside will continue their busy week on Friday with a trip to Bellarmine University. The two teams split a doubleheader at the Case Softball Complex on April 1. They'll finish the week with a doubleheader at Northern Kentucky in their final visit to Highland Heights, Ky., before the Norse move to Division I.
 
Game One (Box Score)
Kelynn Sporer got the Rangers on the board in the second inning helping her own cause. She launched her first career home run, a shot to left-center, to make it 1-0.
 
A couple of errors led to four Lewis runs over the next two innings, helping the Flyers build a 4-1 cushion.
 
The Rangers were up to the challenge as the bats heated up in the fifth. Diana Gordon and Colleen Cummings both singled with one away to ignite the rally. And in the blink of an eye, Parkside had tied the game.
 
Lauren Vitiello stepped up and cranked her fourth home run of the year, this one to right-center, to knot the game at four. The three-run bomb also gave her a team-high 18 runs batted in this season.
 
But the Rangers weren't done in the fifth. With two away they started another rally collecting three straight singles to take the lead. Natalie Shank and Sporer set the table for Ashley Nowdomski who delivered an RBI-single. That gave Parkside a 5-4 lead heading into the fifth.
 
Unfortunately the Flyers were able to strike back. They scored two more unearned runs in the fifth and put up three in the sixth to establish a 9-5 margin. Parkside got a runner in the seventh but couldn't recreate the magic they had on Sunday.
 
Cummings finished the game with three hits, her tenth multi-hit game of the season. Sporer and Nowdomski each had two hits. The Rangers left nine runners on base in the game.
 
Sporer went the distance in the loss allowing only three earned runs. The Rangers committed seven errors on the day, including five in the opener. Parkside outhit the Flyers 11-10 in game but came up just short.
 
Game Two (Box Score)
The nightcap was all Lewis, as the home team scored four runs in the first inning and three more in the third to open things up.
 
On the flip side, Karissa Habel stymied the Ranger offense holding them to just two hits on the night. Kirsten Luevano and Kristin Kleinmeyer each started innings with singles but could come around to score.
 
The Flyers scored two runs in the fourth to make it 9-0 and held Parkside scoreless in the fifth to end the game.
 
The Rangers will take a 4-18 conference mark into this weekend's action in Kentucky. The team will return home next weekend for a pair of GLVC doubleheaders. They'll host Indianapolis on April 14 in the program's fourth annual cancer awareness benefit game. “Paint Parkside Pink” will feature a raffle and silent auction with t-shirts also available for sale. Come out and support UW-Parkside softball and breast cancer research.