Wildcats Sweep Pirates at Home, Earn Third Straight Shutout

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. - After defeating Benedictine, 1-0 in extra innings on Saturday in its last outing at Cavaness Field, (RV) Baker softball secured two more shutouts at home by blanking Park and earning a midweek sweep of the Pirates on Wednesday.

The Wildcats won game one, 4-0 before completing the sweep with a 9-0 run-rule win in the nightcap. BU's pitching arsenal of Kira Baker, Breana Barchak and Tess Eubank combined to throw 12 innings of scoreless ball with Eubank picking up her second straight shutout in game two after coming out on top of the 10-inning marathon against the Ravens.

Game 1 - BU 4, Park 0
BU scored a pair of runs in the second and added another two-run inning in the fifth to back a combined shutout from Baker and Barchak in the first game of the doubleheader.

Riley Phillips and Ashlee Jackman drove in the first runs of the game for the Wildcats in the bottom of the second with Phillips recording an RBI single before coming around to score on Jackman's RBI knock to give BU a 2-0 lead.

After Mary Grace Hess reached on a one-out single in the fifth, the speedy right-fielder raced home on a wild pitch to make it a three-run lead for the Wildcats. In the same at-bat, Madi Ball smacked the first of her three extra-base hits in the series with an RBI double to cap the scoring at 4-0.

The lefty Baker racked up nine strikeouts and allowed just two hits in her five innings of work before turning things over to Barchak, who finished things off with a scoreless sixth and seventh inning for BU.

Game 2 - BU 9, Park 0 (5 inn.)
Taking a two-run lead in the second inning for the second straight game, Baker delivered a seven-run explosion in the third to trigger the run-rule and cruise to a 9-0 victory in the series finale.

After Rylee Seymour and Hailey Ramirez delivered a couple of RBI singles in the bottom of the second to put the Wildcats up, 2-0, Ball opened up the big third inning with her second double of the day. Savannah Bray drove in Ball from second and came around to score on a Pirates wild pitch later in the inning.

With Hess' two-run single bringing a couple more runs across, Ball came to the plate for the second time in the inning and tallied all three of her RBI in the game after connecting on her first triple of the spring on a bases-clearing extra-base hit to seal the series sweep for BU.

Eubank turned in an efficient five-inning outing by throwing just 48 pitches and allowing four hits, while registering three strikeouts for her fifth victory of the season.

With weather shifting its weekend road trip to Iowa, Baker will face off first against Mount Mercy on Friday, April 5 at 2 p.m. in Cedar Rapids before closing out the weekend at Clarke on Saturday, April 6 at 1 p.m. in Dubuque.

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