Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 RIPON, Wis. - Ripon's softball team played a pair of closely contested games against Lake Forest Saturday afternoon, but ultimately fell in both contests. The first game didn't see the Red Hawks trail until the final inning, losing 2-1, while the second game saw Lake Forest grab the lead first and keep it, as the Foresters earned the sweep with a 7-3 victory.

The first game saw Ripon break a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fifth inning when Micaela Encarnacion doubled, allowing Haley Reierson to score from second base after reaching on a single and recording a stolen base. That lead lasted until the top of the final inning when Lake Forest connected on a two-out two-run double for the go-ahead run. Ripon then went down in order to end the game.

Ripon out-hit LFC 7-5, led by Riley Breider's two hits, including a double. Lilli Smith suffered a hard luck loss, allowing two runs on five hits, while pitching all seven innings.

Lake Forest scored first in the second game on a solo home run in the top of the third. They added three more runs in the following inning, coming on an RBI single and a two-run triple. They added another RBI single in the top of the sixth to increase their lead to 5-0 before Cortney Bols delivered Ripon's first run of the contest with an RBI double, which allowed Brennah Bronk to cross the plate.

Lake Forest capped their scoring with another two-run triple in the seventh. Ripon scored twice in the bottom of that inning on an RBI triple from Reierson and a run-scoring single off the bat of Encarnacion, but it was not enough to pull out the victory.

Ripon finished with six hits, coming from six different players. Alyssa Banta suffered the loss, allowing three earend runs on just four hits in four innings of work, while striking out one and walking none.

The Red Hawks will be in action again on Saturday when they'll travel to Appleton, Wis. to battle Lawrence University. That doubleheader is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.