CLERMONT, Fla. – The UW-Stevens Point softball team (7-3) hit a pair of home runs and piled up 19 runs in a sweep on day one of the Spring Games in Florida.  The Pointers defeated Lake Forest (7-6) by a 9-2 score and then run-ruled Benedictine (0-1) by a 10-2 final in five innings.
 
Maddie Candre (St. Charles, Ill./East) hit her first home run of the season and collected seven hits in nine at-bats.  She drove in three and scored three times.
 
Sara Traxel (Oak Creek, Wis./Oak Creek) extended her hitting streak to eight with hits in both games.  All three of her hits were for extra bases.  She drove in five runs on the day and scored twice.
 
Lauren Luedtke (Lomira, Wis./Lomira) and Madi Greenaberg (Downers Grove, Ill./North) both collected two hits in each game.  Luedtke scored three times on the day.
 
Megan Lawrence (Antioch, Ill./Antioch Community) hit her first home run and joined Sammy Buerger (Oshkosh, Wis./North) and Rachael Wakefield (River Falls, Wis./River Falls) with multiple hits on the day.
 
Game 1 – UWSP 9, LFC 2
The Foresters took the lead in the bottom of the first with a leadoff home run. 
 
UWSP's bats lit up in the third.  Mackenzie Niespodzany (Pulaski, Wis./Pulaski) drew a leadoff walk.  Candre singled and two batters later, Luedtke singled to load the bases.  Traxel ripped a bases-clearing triple to right-center and scored on the play on an over throw at third. Ashley Cohen (Wheaton, Ill./Glenbard South) continued the rally with a single.  Lawrence and Greenaberg singled back-to-back to reload the bases.  With two away, Niespodzany singled to give UWSP a 5-1 lead.
 
Lake Forest got a run back in the bottom of the frame on a leadoff hit that scored on a sac fly.
 
Consecutive triples by Luedtke and Traxel plated the first run in the fourth.  Cohen drove in another run with a squeeze bunt to make it a 7-2 game.
 
Wakefield led off the seventh with a single.  With two down, Clarissa Messina (Rosemont, Ill./East Leyden) singled to put runners on the corners.  A double steal by Niespodzany and Maddix Bonnell (Merrill, Wis./Merrill) plated a two-out run.  Candre followed singled to center to score another and complete the scoring.
 
Makenna Tkach (Streator, Ill./Marquette Academy) started and pitched 5.0 for the win.  She struck out three and scattered four hits.  Cohen tossed the final two frames.  She did not allow a hit and struck out three.
 
Game 2 – UWSP 10, Benedictine 2 (5 inn.)
Candre led off the bottom of the first with a home run to right-center.  Luedtke followed with a double.  With two away, the Pointers tacked on an unearned run.  Buerger continued the rally with an RBI double.  Lawrence followed with a two-run shot to left as UWSP went ahead 5-0.
 
Candre singled again with one out in the second.  Traxel doubled her home with two away for a 6-0 lead.
 
The Eagles got on the board in the third with two runs on two hits.
 
UWSP tacked on a run in the fourth on hits by Wakefield and Luedtke and a double steal.
 
In the fifth, the Pointers got a one-out single from Greenaberg.  Burger singled and a Becca Geiyer (Grayslake, Ill./Warren Township) single plated the first run.  Wakefield singled to center to plate another run.  Candre walked the Pointers off with an infield hit.
 
Cohen started and tossed 2.1 frames.  She struck out one and allowed three hits.  Lauren Lindahl (Shakopee, Minn./Shakopee) tossed the final 2.2 for the win.  She gave up just one hit.
 
The Pointers will wrap up a shortened trip to Florida on Saturday at 9:00 a.m. ET against Dominican and 11:30 a.m. ET versus SUNY Geneseo.