Greiner’s Walk-Off Advances 'Cats in Nine-Inning Tournament Thriller over No. 5 Benedictine

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - Ava Greiner's headfirst slide into first base allowed the game-winning run to cross for the Wildats as No. 4 Baker came out on top of a nine-inning, walk-off thriller over No. 5 Benedictine, 2-1 in the first round of the 2025 Heart Softball Conference Tournament on Thursday morning.

With two down in the bottom of the ninth, senior Savannah Bray, whose home run in the first inning provided the only other run for BU, just nearly missed a game-ending homer, but turned it into her second triple of the season to bring Greiner to the plate.

Greneir's comebacker to the circle ricocheted off of Ravens reliever Lily SinghDhillon and allowed BU's speedy centerfielder enough time to beat the throw to first and score Bray in the Wildcats' second win over Benedictine in less than a week.

As the opening game of this year's conference tournament, the matchup featured a pitcher's duel between BU starter Kira Baker, who went all nine innings of the two-hour marathon, and the two-headed attack from BC with SinghDhillon coming on for starter Bailey Selvage in the sixth.

Baker had a no-hitter going through six innings, allowing just two baserunners to reach during that span, and finished with eight strikeouts in a dominant performance for the junior pitcher.

In her first plate appearance, Bray launched a 1-1 pitch over the wall in right-center to spot Baker an early one-run advantage in the bottom of the first.

With both pitchers cruising and the Ravens down to their last three outs, Benedictine's Kaelyn Fisher broke up the no-hitter with a leadoff home run in the top of the seventh to send the game into extras.

The Wildcats, who finished with 11 total hits in the game, loaded the bases in back-to-back innings in the seventh and eighth, but couldn't bring the winning run across either time.

Baker worked around a lone BC hit in both of the eighth and ninth innings to keep the Ravens off the scoreboard and set the stage for Greiner's game-winner in the bottom of the ninth.

Both Bray and Greiner recorded three-hit days with Greiner following Bray's solo homer in the first with a double. Riley Phillips and Reese Curry also had multi-hit games for BU with Phillips hitting a double in the third and Curry almost coming through with a game-winning hit in the eighth, but the hard-hit ball struck off the BC pitcher and stayed in the infield.

The Wildcats were 1-1 in extra-inning games coming into today after a 2-1 victory over Missouri Valley in 10 innings a couple of weeks ago. BU fell to No. 2 Oregon Tech in 10 innings in a non-conference matchup back in February.

BU advances in the winner's bracket of the Heart Tournament and will face top-seed Central Methodist tomorrow (May 2) at Noon in Cedar Rapids, Iowa for a chance to move on to the Heart Semifinals. The Wildcats split with CMU last Friday at home with a 6-0 victory in game one and a 7-0 setback in the series finale.

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