Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 The Carthage College softball team (27-3, 7-1 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 24th in the April 18 National Fastpitch Coaches Association NCAA Division III poll, swept a Thursday, April 19 doubleheader from CCIW-opponent North Park University (19-13, 2-6 CCIW), 5-4 and 6-0, at the Holmgren Athletic Complex in Chicago. 

The two wins elevated the Lady Reds into sole possession of first place in the league, temporarily anyway, one-game ahead Illinois Wesleyan University.  The Titans are idle until they play host to North Park on Saturday, April 22.  Carthage has won 17 of its last 18 games, and the team's 27 wins are a school record.  Coach Amy Gillmore's 2003 squad won 26 games.
 
North Park out-hit Carthage, 10-4, in the opener, but two of the Lady Reds' hits were home runs.  The Vikings took a 2-0 lead in the first inning of the opener on RBI-singles by Ana Pistilli and Megan Bura.  North Park added an unearned run in the second for a 3-0 lead.  Carthage's Alyssa Schrader blasted a two-run homer in the fourth, her 10th of the year, to cut the lead to 3-2. 

The Lady Reds took a 4-3 lead in the fifth on a two-run homer by Katie Morman and added an unearned run in the seventh to make it 5-3.  Vikings' pinch-hitter Jessica Refojo led off the seventh inning with a solo home run to shave the Carthage lead to 5-4, but Lady Reds pitcher Krystina Leazer (Jr., Des Plaines, Ill./Elk Grove, 18-1) induced three ground balls to end the inning.  Casey Latal (5-6) took the loss.  Leazer is just one wins shy of tying her own 2011 season record of 19 wins.  Her last loss was to St. Gregory's University on March 23, and she's won 11 games in a row since then.
 
Carthage capitalized on a North Park mistake to score five runs with two outs in the bottom of the first inning of the nightcap.  Vicki Pyan struck out swinging, seemingly the third out, but was safe when Vikings catcher threw the ball away at first base trying the complete the strikeout.  Alyssa Schrader walked, and Abby Hanson delivered an RBI-single to score Pyan.  Randi Rederer walked to load the bases, and Bryanna Heckel singled in Schrader and Hanson.  Alyse Mikolas followed with an RBI-single to score Rederer, and Corinne Sheley singled home Heckel for the fifth run. 

Katie Morman led off the Carthage fourth with a solo home run, her second homer of the day, to put the Lady Reds up, 6-0, to close out the scoring.  Bryanna Heckel (So., Kenosha, Wis./Salem-Westosha Central) went two-for-three with two RBI, and Alyse Mikolas (So., Kenosha, Wis./Bradford) had two hits in three trips.  Pitcher Alyssa Schrader (Sr., Plainfield, Ill./South) improved her record to 9-2 by blanking North Park on three hits and a walk over seven innings. Courtney Lucht (10-5) took the loss.

Carthage entertains CCIW-foe Elmhurst College (19-7, 4-2 CCIW) on Saturday, April 21 in a 1 p.m. doubleheader at the Carthage Softball Field.