Knights on top, again

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Lincoln-Way Central clinched a share of its third-straight conference championship by defeating rival Lincoln-Way East 4-2 Thursday in New Lenox.

The Knights (20-6, 8-3) avenged an earlier 1-0 defeat to the Griffins (14-7, 5-5) to guarantee that they can do no worse than tie for the SouthWest Suburban Conference Red Division crown.

Jackie Dugan tossed a six-hitter and struck out three to collect the complete-game victory while Courtney Dunker (2-for-3) drove in a pair of runs for the winners, including a solo homer.

The hosts moved in front in the fifth inning when Dunker crushed her third home run, a two-out solo blast to left field off Griffins pitcher Caitlin Santefort to give them a 2-1 lead.

"I wanted to play this game so badly so that we could get this conference title under our belts," Dunker said. "And it's always nice to win against your rival.

"I thought my home run got us pumped up so that we fought harder. I went up to bat thinking that I was going to nail it out of the park, so that felt awesome."

Lincoln-Way Central added two insurance runs with two outs in the sixth when Cassie Redman singled in courtesy runner Rebecca Aiken and Rachel Larson (2-for-4) singled home Amanda Rafferty.

The Griffins got a run back in the seventh inning when Rosie Wysocki drove in Ashley Linhart (3-for-3) with a groundout, but Dugan closed things out.

In the first inning, the Knights scored a run after getting three hits off of starter Jessica Iversen. Dunker doubled in Larson for that initial run.

Lincoln-Way East evened things in the second when Bri Lizen led off with a single and was replaced by courtesy runner Caroline Calabrese, who came home on a double to center by Linhart.