ROSEMONT – A late insurance run helped Roosevelt split an unpredictable Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader on Tuesday against Parkside at the Parkway Bank Sports Complex.

Both games were tight with the Lakers and Rangers both putting a lot of pressure on the defense in different ways. Roosevelt (13-25, 7-13 GLIAC) fell 4-3 in the opener before bouncing back for a 3-2 win in the nightcap. The split pushed the Lakers to within a game out of the final berth in the GLIAC Tournament with eight games left.  

PARKSIDE 4, ROOSEVELT 3
The Rangers started the game with back-to-back doubles to take an early 1-0 lead, but Kailey Hancock managed to escape trouble in an unusual fashion. The sophomore induced a comebacker to the circle that hit off her shin and rolled towards first base. Hancock was able to field the ball and flip it to first for the second out, but the runner on second base was caught off third after advancing and was tagged out at home trying to score in a rundown.

The bottom half of the first was a bit crazier with the Lakers scoring twice to take the lead without a hit. Ella Dvoracek reached on an error, advancing to second on the poor throw to first base. A passed ball allowed Dvoracek to move up 60 feet before Kendall Pearson walked and tried to take second. In a hurry, the Parkside pitcher threw the ball past second base into centerfield, allowing Dvoracek to score.

Athena Pomele-Pen laid down the sacrifice to move Pearson to third base and Brynn Dvoracek scored her with a sacrifice fly.

Another pair of doubles yielded a run for Parkside in the third inning then the Rangers struck for two more in the fourth. Roosevelt was still hitless entering the sixth inning, but Pomele-Pen changed that in a hurry with a blast into the jet stream that carried the ball over the fence in right field for a solo homer. The Lakers put two more runners on base, but could not scratch across the tying run.

ROOSEVELT 3, PARKSIDE 2
Riley Czarnecki was a wizard in the circle for the Lakers in the second game, escaping danger constantly in her complete-game effort. She allowed only five hits, walked seven and hit two batters, but managed to strand 10 Rangers on the base paths to earn her ninth win of the season.

Parkside left runners on base in the first five innings, including two times failing to score after having runners on second and third with no outs. Czarnecki loaded the bases in the first inning, but a weak grounder her back to the pitcher started the 1-2-3 double play. After a walk to re-load the bases, Czarnecki struck out her first batter of the day to end the inning.

In the second, Czarnecki stranded runners on first and second, and in the third, she got a groundout with runners on second and third with two outs. The fifth inning, though, nearly equaled her first inning magic. A passed ball put runners on second and third with no one out, only for Czarnecki to strike out the next batter she faced, induce a weak grounder that froze the runners for a second out then finished the sequence with another strikeout.

The escape from the fifth was vital because she had a lead to protect for the first time in that inning. Rebecca Urbaniak started the bottom of the fourth with a single then stole second base. A long pop up that took the second baseman nearly behind first base allowed Urbaniak to tag up and take third. Ava Kaspar reached when the third baseman elected to try to keep Urbaniak at third base, setting the scene for Isis Enriquez.

The freshman third baseman hit a line drive that hugged the left-field line, scoring both runs while she motored all the way to third for a triple. The inning unfortunately ended for Roosevelt when a line drive was snagged at third base, leading to an easy double play as Enriquez was trying to score on the contact.

Roosevelt scratched across an insurance run in more traditional fashion in the bottom of the fifth with Ella Dvoracek dumping a single into left field. A sacrifice bunt and groundout moved her to third base for her sister, Brynn, who laced a pitch just past the diving second baseman. As the ball rolled to the wall, Brynn took second base for a double to increase the lead to 3-0.

An ill-timed error allowed the Rangers to score twice in the top of the sixth, and they were threatening for more after being hit by a pitch. However, Parkside got too greedy on the base paths on a sacrifice bunt, allowing Roosevelt to clear the bases with Urbaniak firing to Enriquez, who hustled back to third base to tag out the runner.
Czarnecki saved her only perfect inning for the seventh as the Lakers held on for a fourth consecutive split doubleheader in conference play.

UP NEXT: The Lakers hit the road at the end of the week for a pair of GLIAC doubleheaders. Roosevelt will visit Grand Valley State on Thursday for a twinbill starting at 2 p.m. then faces Purdue Northwest on Saturday for a second doubleheader.