GALESBURG, Ill. – After clubbing 15 hits in Sunday's 10-2 Game 1 win, Cornell's lineup was limited in a 3-2 Game 2 loss to Knox in Midwest Conference South Division softball action Sunday afternoon.

The split moved the Rams to 8-2 on the season, 3-1 in the MWC.

Cornell finished off the Prairie Fire (2-12 overall, 1-3 MWC) in the opener with a big nine-run, 11-hit outburst in the bottom of the fifth inning. Trailing 2-1 entering the frame, the Rams plated all nine runs with two outs.

Zoie Harvey (SO/Urbandale, Iowa) and Alyssa Pearson (SO/McHenry, Ill.) started the rally with back-to-back two-run doubles. Marissa Faletti (JR/Oak Forest, Ill.), Mady Rainey (FR/Huntley, Ill.), Caitlin Babcock (FR/Mount Vernon, Iowa), Darice Wheeler (SR/Evanston, Ill.) and Claire Gugerty (SO/Morris, Ill.) also had RBI hits for the Rams, who ended the game in the fifth via the mercy rule.  

Wheeler went 3-for-4 with a run to pace Cornell's attack. Julissa Rivera (FR/Houston, Texas), Babcock and Gugerty recorded two hits apiece.

Pearson hiked her season pitching record to 5-1, scattering four hits over five innings. She struck out six.   

The Rams mustered just three singles against Knox's Mimi Schweitzer in Game 2. Cornell's two runs came in the third inning on a Rivera hit and Wheeler sacrifice fly.

Knox went ahead 3-2 with a two-out single in the top of the fifth. The Rams left one runner on base in each of the last two innings.

Wheeler (3-1) tossed all seven innings in the circle, allowing eight hits and striking out five.

Coming up – Cornell continues MWC action Saturday with a 1 p.m. doubleheader at Grinnell.