Iowa Lakes Community College split with North Iowa Area Community College on April 2nd. The Lakers took game one 14-8 and then dropped game two 10-1. The Lakers are now 10-14 overall and 1-3 in conference.

Game One: ILCC 14, NIACC 8

NIACC opened up the scoring in the bottom of the first inning. They scored six runs on seven hits and one walk.

Iowa Lakes quickly responded in the top of the second, scoring five runs of their own. Laurie Custard, Kenlee Frank, and Lexi Pallisco each drew walks. With two outs, Desiree Lopez walked to score the first Laker run. Leilani San Pedro then doubled to right field to score both Frank and Pallisco. Kaitlin Walsh quickly followed with a single up the middle to score both Lopez and San Pedro to put the Lakers down just one run. Yasmine Nix got the Trojans to go down in order in the bottom of the second.

Custard again got things rolling for the Lakers when she led off with a single. Custard then advanced to second on a passed ball before she was moved to third base on a Gabby Heckard single. Pallisco then grounded out to the second baseman, but Custard scored on the play to tie the game at six.

The Lakers scored another run in the top of the fourth. Lopez singled, advanced to second on a passed ball, and then was brought home on a Montanna Popp double. NIACC tried to get things going again in their half of the inning, but was shut down when Custard caught the Trojans trying to steal second base.

Iowa Lakes kept growing their lead when Frank led off the fifth with a walk. A couple of illegal pitches by the Trojans advanced Frank to third before Pallisco hit a hard ground ball at the pitcher that was misplayed to score Frank and put the Lakers up 8-6.

The Lakers broke things open in the sixth, scoring four runs on four hits. Walsh led off the inning with a single to the right side, before advancing to third on a double off the bat of Popp. Custard then loaded the bases with a walk to bring up Frank. Frank hit a line drive to left field to score Walsh. With two outs, Sullwold stepped into the box and drove a ball to the centerfield fence to score Popp and Custard and put the Lakers up 11-6. The final run of the inning came when Lopez put pressure on the defense with her speed by tapping a ball to the shortstop and getting on, which allowed Frank to score. NIACC scored two runs in the bottom half of the inning on two hits and two sacrifice flies.

Walsh led off the top of the seventh with a double and quickly scampered across the plate when Popp hit her third double of the day. Popp scored the final run of the game when she came home on a Heckard double to left field.

Yasmine Nix got the win for the Lakers. She allowed eight earned runs on sixteen hits and one walk. At the plate, Kaitlin Walsh was 4-4 with one double, two runs batted in, and two runs scored. Montanna Popp was 3-5 with three doubles, two runs batted in, and two runs scored. Julia Sullwold and Gabby Heckard each had two hits for the Lakers as well.

Game Two: NIACC 10, ILCC 1 (6 innings)

Game two went a little different for the Lakers. They started off the first inning with a leadoff single by Sullwold. Sullwold then stole second and advanced to third on a ground ball from Lopez. San Pedro and Sullwold then executed a suicide squeeze to put the Lakers up 1-0. The Trojans quickly fought back, scoring one run of their own in the bottom of the first on two hits.

Both teams remained scoreless until the bottom of the fourth, when the Trojans scored three runs. They did this on four hits and one walk.

The Lakers could never really get anything going offensively the rest of the game. NIACC scored the final six runs of the game in the bottom of the sixth. They did this on five hits and two Laker errors.

Yasmine Nix took the loss for the Lakers. She pitched 3.2 innings, allowing four earned runs on eight hits. Bibiana Rosales pitched the final two innings to the Lakers, allowing six runs, no earned, on five hits, two walks, and one strikeout. Julia Sullwold led the way at the plate for the Lakers. She was 3-3 with a double, one run scored, and one stolen base.

The Lakers will travel to Norfolk, NE on Wednesday, April 4th, to take on Northeast Community College at 2:00 and 4:00 PM. Note, this is a schedule change.