Photos from Eddie Faican

CHICAGO, Ill. -- Vikings softball matched up with the Wheaton Thunder on Thursday afternoon with a double-header to start off the 2023 conference season. North Park emerged victorious in both contests to mark wins in four of their last five and move to 7-10-1 overall (2-0 CCIW).

Great day to open up our conference play by sweeping Wheaton College 8-3 and 12-1 (5 inn.)#allin pic.twitter.com/b5Rk5BdKQD

— NPU Softball (@NPUSoftball) March 31, 2023

Game 1

HC Katie Anderson again opted to go with Maya Lafnear as the Vikings' Game 1 starter. She carried her momentum over from yesterday's matchup with Benedictine, holding the Thunder scoreless through three innings.

On the other side of the ball, North Park's bats helped the team jump out to a 6-0 lead to that point. Isa Santos first got the Vikings on the board with a squeeze bunt to drive in Eden Baker, who had reached third in a triple. Santos later scored on NPU's second triple of the inning off the bat of Kayla Lorenz. One more run crossed the plate in the 1st, followed by a two-run 2nd inning and one-run 3rd. 

Wheaton knocked on the door in the 4th with two runs scored, but North Park was able to match that in the bottom half of the inning to maintain their six-run cushion. The Vikings' offense cooled off after the hot start but that posed no problems as they'd go on to win Game 1 by a score of 8-3. 

Game 2

Alyssa Malicki followed up Lafnear as Game 2's starter, and she and the North Park bats one-upped their Game 1 effort to beat the Thunder in 5 innings at a score of 12-1. The two sides entered the 2nd inning in a 1-1 tie before the Vikings offense erupted for three runs in the 2nd and eight in the 3rd. Maddy Tan scored both the first and last runs in North Park's 3rd-inning outburst, drawing walks in both of her plate appearances as the offense batted around the lineup. 

Lafnear and Malicki combined to allow just 15 baserunners across the two games, with the former going 7.0 IP with 3 ER in Game 1 while Malicki wound at 5.0 IP and 0 ER in the shortened Game 2. Offensively, Eden Baker led NPU with 5 hits on the day as the only Viking with multi-hit efforts in both contests. Malicki, Kathryn Keehn, Kayla Lorenz, and Isa Santos each added a multi-hit performance as well. 

What's Next

The Vikings next take the field this Sunday, April 2nd when they host the University of Chicago for a double-header. Game 1 is slated to start at 1:00 P.M. at the Holmgren Athletic Complex.