The Iowa Lakes softball team got two wins over conference foe North Iowa Area Community College Saturday afternoon. The Lakers put together a 14 run first inning to get the 24-2 five inning win in game one. Iowa Lakes then won game two, 9-1 in five innings, on a walk-off homerun by Blaney Markman. The Lakers are now 31-14 overall and 16-10 in the ICCAC.
Game One: ILCC 24, NIACC 2
In game one, the Lakers put up 24 runs in five innings, including a 14 run first inning. Things got started in the bottom of the first with four singles and three runs scored. Courtney Calkins was then hit by a pitch before Markman singled and Montanna Popp doubled to put the Lakers up 6-0. Kaitlin Walsh followed with a homerun to centerfield to bring up the top of the order again. Julia Sullwold and Lauren Hein walked before Leilani San Pedro singled and Deanna Gerrard doubled to make the score 11-0. Shelby Davis singled to put runners on the corner before Calkins doubled to left field. The Lakers scored their final run of the inning off a Walsh single to centerfield.
The second inning started with a leadoff walk by Hein. Gerrard singled to center before Davis was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Hein scored on a wild pitch and Gerrard was brought home on a Calkins sacrifice fly to right field. Davis scored and Markman reached second on a Trojan error, before Popp walked. Walsh doubled to score Markman and both Popp and Walsh came around to score on a MaKarlie Smith double to put the Lakers up 20-0.
Julia Pfeiffer led off the third with a walk and advanced to second on a Gerrard single. Davis singled to load the bases before two runs crossed the plate off a Calkins single. With Davis at third, Desiree Lopez scored her on a fielder's choice to put the Lakers up 23-0.
The Trojans scored two runs in the top of the fourth on one hit and one Laker error. The Lakers got that one run back in their half of the inning off a Hein homerun.
Courtney Calkins (16-4) picked up the win. She allowed zero runs on two hits, while striking out two Trojan batters. Kaitlyn Bowman pitched the final three innings of the game. She allowed two runs, zero earned, on four hits, while striking out three batters. Deanna Gerrard led the Lakers going a perfect 5-5. She had one double with three runs batted in. Kaitlin Walsh was 3-4 with one double and one homerun. She had four runs batted in and scored two runs.
Game Two: ILCC 9, NIACC 1
The Lakers bats again got things rolling in the bottom of the first. Sullwold led off with a double and San Pedro was hit by the pitch to bring up Gerrard. Gerrard hit a single to right field to score both runners and put the Lakers up 2-0.
Markman got things started in the bottom of the second with a single. Popp walked before Walsh reached on an error by the right fielder. Markman was thrown out at home on the Walsh hit, but Popp advanced to third. Popp and Walsh were brought home on a Sullwold single to left field. Sullwold was brought around to score on a line drive from Hein that was misplayed by the centerfielder. Sullwold's run put the Lakers up 5-0.
The Trojans scored one run in the top of the fourth on a solo homerun.
Hein led off the bottom of the fifth with a solo homerun of her own to put the Lakers up 6-1. Gerrard walked and stole second before tagging to third on a Davis fly ball to left. Calkins brought Gerrard home on a single before Markman finished the game on a homerun to left field.
Ashton Kazmierski (13-8) picked up the game two win. Markman was 2-3 with one run scored and two runs batted in. Sullwold was also 2-3 with two runs batted in and two runs scored.
The Lakers will finish up conference play tomorrow, April 23rd, with a home series against Ellsworth Community College. The games will be at 12:00 and 2:00 PM.