BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- The North Park softball team faced off with Illinois Wesleyan in a double-header this Wednesday, and although the Vikings lost both games, it was a day that the record books won't soon forget. With Alyssa Aragon and Alyssa Malicki's 13th career home runs, the two now stand atop the Vikings all-time career home run leaderboard. The mark surpasses their coach Katie Anderson's previous record of 12 which she held alongside Kim Walker ('04).
Game 1 kicked off with Caitlyn Webb and Isa Santos both reaching base via walks. That brought Aragon to the plate against the Titans' workhorse, Nina Mardjetko, with the chance to make history. Aragon made the most of that chance with a home run to left field that not only broke the career record, but that also broke the game open for North Park to the tune of an early 3-0 lead. With home run number 13 of her career, Aragon took lone possession atop the all-time leaderboard.
The Titans quickly responded with 4 runs in the bottom half of the first, while the Vikings bats went silent for the remainder of Game 1. North Park went on to lose game 1 by a score of 7-3.
Game 2 also opened with a 3-run top of the first, though this time Wesleyan played as the away team per the CCIW standard for double-headers. Continuing the trend, Nina Mardjetko was again on the mound for the Titans, and she would again play a key role in Vikings history. In the bottom of the 3rd, Alyssa Malicki—not to be outdone by her teammate—drove a ball deep into left field to claim her own share of the all-time home run record. The solo shot not only tied the newly established career record, but it also set a new single-season record of 8 home runs for the softball program.
That brought the score to 3-2 in Wesleyan's favor, but that was the last the Vikings had in store as the game closed out with a score of 7-2.
The two losses on the day bring the Vikings conference record to 5-11 across the season which takes them out of the running for the CCIW tournament. With that, the Vikings close the season with an overall record of 13-19. Even through this bittersweet ending, the 2022 season has produced two of the all-time great individual performances in Vikings history. That memory will live on for the foreseeable future, both in the minds of the Viking faithful and in the record books of North Park University.
