Wildcats Come Up Short in Opening Round Clash with No. 1 Northwestern

SIOUX CENTER, Iowa - After starting off its day with a 2-0 win over No. 5 UNOH, No. 4 Baker softball fell short in its matchup against top-seed Northwestern, 3-2 in the second round of the NAIA Softball Opening Round here Monday evening in Sioux Center, Iowa.

The Wildcats took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first and made it a one-run game in the ninth, but a three-run fourth from the Red Raiders would be all the hosts needed to spoil an opening day sweep for BU.

Riley Phillips and Braxton Stainbrook each had a multi-hit outing for a Baker squad that outhit the NWC lineup, 8-7 with Phillips driving in the first run of the game and Stainbrook sparking the ninth-inning rally with a one-out single. Ashlee Jackman notched her second double of the day, leading off the top of the second with an extra-base hit in her first at-bat of the game.

With just the one wobbly inning, Tess Eubank delivered a solid performance out of the circle, going five innings and having only one of the runs tagged against her with a couple of uncharacteristic errors from the BU defense.

However, Ava Greiner and Rachel Pederson each provided a big play from the outfield by gunning down a Red Raiders runner at the plate to keep a run from coming across in NWC's first and last trips to the plate.

Pederson led off the game with a single to right center and made it to third with one out to give the Wildcats a scoring chance right off the bat. After NWC picked up an out, Phillips came through with a big two-out RBI single to put BU on the scoreboard first for the second straight game.

Eubank strung together nearly four straight scoreless innings to begin her outing before running into trouble with two outs in the bottom of the fourth.

The Red Raiders had back-to-back runners get on before a ball hit to left field resulted in a pair of runs coming across for them with an overthrow to home allowing the go-ahead run to also score.

NWC added what ended up being the game-deciding run on another BU error on the next at-bat to turn the Wildcats' one-run lead into a 3-1 deficit.

Things stayed the same until Stainbrook's one-out single in the top of the ninth looked to bring some charge out of the Baker dugout. An error by NWC gave BU runners at the corners with one down still as Savannah Bray drove in Stainbrook on a fielder's choice to bring the 'Cats within one.

The Raiders were able to induce a groundout to halt the comeback and scrape by with their second tight-knit contest against the Wildcats this year. NWC took a close 6-4 ballgame in a meeting back in late February during the regular season.

With the victory against UNOH, the Wildcats secured their third straight 30-win season and have won 11 of their last 16 games despite the setback to NWC.

Baker moves down to the consolation bracket and will face off against the winner of No. 3 Friends and No. 5 UNOH tomorrow (May 13) at 5 p.m. in Sioux Center.

A livestream will be available on the GPAC Network and will be pay-per-view at a fee of $10 per game or $25 for the tournament. Live stats will be available via StatBroadcast.

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