Munaco's blast highlights Lake Park win

Lake Park tuned up for this weekend's Wendy's Spring Classic softball tournament with a 9-4 victory over Neuqua Valley in an Upstate Eight matchup in Naperville.

Junior catcher Alexis Munaco belted a three-run home run in the third inning that gave No. 2 Lake Park (7-0, 6-0) a 5-0 lead.

"I didn't go up there looking for a home run," Munaco said of her first homer of the season. "The wind just carried it out and it felt good.

"We lost a lot of key players from last years team, but we've been very competitive. We're looking forward to (Wendy's Spring Classic) this weekend, it should be fun."

Carley Willert had two hits, scored twice and added an RBI for the Lancers, who finished with eight hits and led 9-0 in the middle of the fifth.

Neuqua Valley (2-7, 2-4) rallied with a run in the fifth and three more in the sixth, but the Wildcats left the bases loaded in the sixth.

Haley Bork was 3-for-4 with an RBI and Colleen Hohman added two RBI for Neuqua Valley. The Wildcats finished with eight hits, but stranded at least one runner per inning, 12 overall and seven runners in the final three innings.

"We left too many runners in scoring position (seven) and we need to work on that," Neuqua Valley coach Michelle Schmidt said. "Our record doesn't indicate the talent we have. We haven't put it together yet, but there's still lots of games to play."