Back-to-Back Sweeps Give Wildcats 4-0 Start to Heart Season

BALDWIN CITY - Playing in its first set of Heart of America Conference games, the Baker softball team came away with back-to-back sweeps after taking both games against Clarke on Saturday and Mount Mercy on Sunday here at Cavaness Field.

The Wildcats were led by dominant pitching performances this weekend, only giving up three runs in four games and bookending the outing with a couple of shutouts. BU defeated the Pride, 1-0 in game one on Saturday, followed by a 5-1 victory in the nightcap and then swept the Mustangs on Sunday on scores of 5-2 and 2-0.

BU 1, CU 0
Kira Baker bagged her second straight one-hitter and racked up 15 strikeouts to lead the Wildcats to a 1-0 victory in the first game on Saturday.

With the pitcher's duel holding both sides scoreless through the first five innings, BU finally cracked through with a run in the bottom of the sixth.

After Rachel Pederson led off the inning with her second hit of the game, she came all the way around to score from first on a sac bunt attempt from Savannah Bray. Bray's bunt forced an errant throw from the Pride defense and Pederson raced home to log the game's only run.

The lefty Baker slammed the door shut in the top of the seventh, striking out the side to earn her third shutout of the spring.

BU 5, CU 1
Brooke Vicory followed up K. Baker's outing in game one with a gem of her own in game two and Braxton Stainbrook smashed a grand slam to give BU a 5-1 win in Saturday's finale.

A BU bunt created some chaos for the Clarke defense again with Riley Phillips coming home to score on a bunt by Ava Greiner that triggered another CU error to put Baker in front, 1-0 in the bottom of the first.

Clarke scored its only run of the series in the top of the sixth to tie things up before Stainbrook broke the deadlock with her first grand slam of the season.

With the Wildcats scoring the game-winning run in the sixth for the second straight game, Vicory finished things off with a 1-2-3 inning in the seventh for her second win of 2025.

BU 5, MMU 2
On Sunday, the Wildcats scored exactly five runs for the second consecutive game with a four-run sixth pushing them past the Mustangs in game one, 5-2.

An RBI double from Phillips put BU on the board in the opening frame and gave starter K. Baker a small lead to work with for the first few innings before the Mustangs took the lead in the fourth on a two-run double.

Reese Curry led off the Wildcats' big sixth inning with an infield single and came around to score on an RBI single from Bray to tie the game at 2-2. Greiner snuck a ball through the left side to break the tie and score both Bray and Phillips before Taryn Hull brought Greiner home on a single to center field to cap the three-run victory for BU.

BU 2, MMU 0
Tess Eubank garnished the weekend with another incredible performance out of the circle for the Wildcats as BU completed the four-game sweep with a 2-0 win in the series finale against MMU.

Eubank faced the minimum through the first 11 batters before her offense came through with a run in the fifth inning. Stainbrook led off the fifth with a single and eventually worked her way over to third base. She came across to score on a slow ground ball from Sydney Erlandson to make it a 1-0 lead for BU.

Phillips brought home an insurance run in the next inning with an RBI groundout to give Eubank some breathing room for the seventh where the senior hurler closed out her second shutout of the year.

Starting off conference play with a 4-0 record, Baker will play its next six games away from Baldwin City, beginning with a weekend road trip to Culver-Stockton on Saturday, March 29 and then Grand View on Sunday, March 30. Both doubleheaders are set to start at 1 p.m.

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