DE PERE, Wis. -- The Lawrence University softball team pulled away early Sunday in both games and swept a Midwest Conference doubleheader from Knox College at Miron Construction Field.
    Lawrence took the opener 9-6 and posted a 5-3 win in the second game.
    In the first game, Lawrence (13-15, 5-5 MWC) grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first inning and led by seven before Knox scored. 
    The Vikings got a strong pitching performance from Avery Chilson, who went the distance to pick up the win. She allowed 11 hits, struck out six and didn't walk a batter.
    Gillian Guerriero went 2-for-4 with a triple and drove in three runs to lead the Vikings' 16-hit attack. Zoe Doherty went 2-for-3 with a double, drove in a run and scored three times. Mattigan Haller and Kourtney Mercer both went 2-for-4 with a double and scored a run. Jordan Wallin-Swanson went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and one run batted in, and Khayla Santiago and Chilson both had a pair of hits.
    Lawrence scored two in the first on run-scoring singles by Doherty and Gonzalez, and then broke the game open with five runs in the fifth. Wallin-Swanson had a run-scoring single in the fifth, and the big blow was Guerriero's two-run triple. Two errors helped the Vikings score two more runs, and Lawrence led 7-0.
    Knox got on the board with four runs in the sixth, but the Vikings answered with two runs in the bottom half of the inning. The Vikings executed a double-steal was Doherty stole home, and Guerriero singled to score Wallin-Swanson for a 9-4 lead.
    In the second game, Lawrence again scored twice in the first inning and got a strong pitching performance from Lizzy Angemi.
    Angemi went six innings to pick up her third win of the season. She allowed seven hits, struck out five and walked one.
    Mercer went 3-for-3 with a double, drove in two runs and scored once, and Mary Boyle was 3-for-3 and drove in two runs.
    Haller started the first inning with a single and later came in to score on Gonzelez's ground ball. Mercer later doubled to score Gonzalez, and the Vikings were up 2-0.
    Lawrence made it 3-0 in the fourth when Guerriero walked and came in to score on Boyle's single. The Vikings added two more runs in the fifth as Mercer and Boyle both had run-scoring singles for a 5-0 lead. 
    Knox (2-25,0-10) chipped away by scoring a run in the sixth and then loaded the bases in the seventh. Xiomara Rueda-Marshall came on in relief of Angemi, but Knox picked up two runs on errors before Rueda-Marshall closed out the game for a save.
    Lawrence returns to action on Saturday when the Vikings host Ripon College in a league doubleheader.