L-Way C. topples L-Way E.

NEW LENOX -- There's nothing like beating your biggest rival, especially when it helps your team claim a share of a conference title.

Lincoln-Way Central's softball team clinched a share of its third straight conference championship when it defeated rival Lincoln-Way East 4-2 on Thursday.

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

"This is the third year in a row that we won the conference title and that's really a great accomplishment so I'm real proud of the girls," Knights coach Dick Mandella said.

"We've played great defense all year, especially in the infield. We also had some timely hits and Courtney Dunker's home run was huge."

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 Knights moved in front in the fifth inning when Dunker crushed her third home run, a two-out solo blast to leftfield off Griffin pitcher Caitlin Santefort to give them a 2-1 advantage.

"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."

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.

"Our defense was definitely a huge part of things today," Dugan said. "I didn't really have many strikeouts so I relied on my defense.

"And we were definitely were picking each other up with our hitting and as coach tells us that hitting is contagious."

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.

But after retiring only one batter, Iversen was relieved by Santefort, who inherited a bases-loaded jam. She got out of the mess with a fielder's choice and a grounder back to her.

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.

"Central just played a great game today," Griffins coach Katie Meader said. "They were hitting the ball hard, even on their outs. And we left some runners stranded and you can't do that in a game like this.

"Even after she hit that ball out of the park, we didn't feel deflated since it was only one run, just like in the first inning and we felt that we'd get it back. This was a great game to play so close to the postseason."