Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 The Carthage College softball team (11-5, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), tied for 34th place in the April 3 National Fastpitch Coaches Association poll, split a Friday, April 5 doubleheader with St. Norbert College (8-6) at the Carthage Softball Field in Kenosha, Wis., winning the first game, 9-1, but losing the nightcap by a 5-3 margin.
 
Carthage took a 2-0 lead in the first inning of the opener on a two-out, two-run home by Katie Morman.  The Lady Reds made it a 3-0 game in the second on a sacrifice fly by Corinne Sheley.  An RBI-single by Abby Hanson in the third made it 4-0.  After the Green Knights scored a run in the top of the fifth, the Lady Reds added two more in the bottom half to take a 6-1 lead.  Carthage won the game with a three-run sixth inning to win, 9-1, aided by an eight-run rule.  Krystina Leazer (Sr., Des Plaines, Ill./Elk Grove, 7-2) was the winning pitcher, and she limited St. Norbert to one run on six hits and three walks over seven innings.  Katie Morman (Jr., Kenosha, Wis./Somers-Shoreland Lutheran) went three-for-four with three RBI.  Shaneen Schmidt (3-4) took the loss for the Green Knights.
 
In the second game, St. Norbert took a 1-0 lead in the first inning.  Carthage tied the contest in the bottom half when Bryanna Heckel scored from second base when Green Knights first baseman Abby Gildernick dropped a throw from her shortstop.  The Lady Reds went up, 2-1, in the third on an RBI-double by Katie Morman.  St. Norbert came up with four-straight two-out hits in the fifth off pitcher Tina Campbell to take 5-2 lead.  A two-run single by Morgan Buboltz capped the four-run inning.  The Lady Reds got a run back in the bottom half on an RBI-single by Vicki Pyan but left the bases loaded.  Carthage was unable to mount much of a threat in either the sixth or seventh frames, and the 5-3 margin held up, as the temperature dropped to under 33 degrees.

Tina Campbell (Jr., St. Petersburg, Fla./Lakeland, 4-3) took the loss for the Lady Reds.  She allowed five runs on nine hits and a walk over seven innings.  Morgan Rusch (5-2) was the winning pitcher, and she limited Carthage to three runs, two earned, on seven hits and two walks.  Carthage Katie Morman was three-for-four with an RBI in the second game to cap a six-for-eight day and four RBI.

Carthage is scheduled to play open its CCIW-schedule on Saturday, April 7 by playing host to North Park University in a 12:15 p.m. doubleheader (please note a time change from 1 p.m.), also at the Carthage Softball Field.  Saturday's weather forecast calls for rain likely in the late-afternoon with a slight chance of thunderstorms and highs in the mid 60s along Lake Michigan.