Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 FULTON, Mo.—The No. 1 seeded William Woods University softball team cruised past the No. 8 seeded Hannibal-LaGrange University Lady Trojans on Friday afternoon in the American Midwest Conference Quarterfinals, taking game one 9-0 (5 innings) and game two 5-0.

William Woods University 9 Hannibal-LaGrange 0 (5 innings)
The Owls (36-15; 20-2 AMC), jumped on top of Hannibal-LaGrange (19-30; 9-13 AMC) in the home half of the first, as freshman Hannah Campbell led the inning off with a single and stole second during Shelby LeCuru's at-bat.
 
Shelby LeCuru laid down a sacrifice bunt, which moved Campbell over to third and she scored shortly thereafter, as Kacey Scharnhorst doubled to right-center, scoring Campbell and giving WWU the 1-0 advantage.
 
After a strikeout, hot-hitting Emily Murphy singled to center, scoring Scharnhorst from second and at the end of one inning of play, WWU was up 2-0.
 
That lead was more than enough for senior MacKenzie Bowden, who was making her final start at Backer Sports Complex and the Hartsburg, Mo., native went out in style, hurling five innings of one-hit ball and striking out five. The victory was her 18^th on the season, which is a new career-best, as she surpasses her total of 17 she set as a freshman.
 
The offense, which batted over .370 the final eight games of the season, piled it on in the bottom of the second, as the Owls scored three runs on three hits, getting RBI from Shelby LeCuru and Scharnhorst (2) and took a commanding 5-0 lead.
 
In the bottom of the fourth, the Owls put the game away, as Caroline Sicht led off with a single to right. After a pop-out and walk to Campbell, Shelby LeCuru reached base on a fielder's choice, putting runners on first and second for Scharnhorst.
 
The St. Peters, Mo., native forced the second walk of the inning, which loaded up the bases for senior Lindsey LeCuru, who singled to center, scoring Campbell and her sister Shelby from second, extending the lead to 7-0.
 
Murphy continued the two-out rally, as she singled to right, scoring Scharnhorst and Lindsey LeCuru, which put the Owls up 9-0, while also sparking the eight-run mercy rule after five innings of play.
 
Bowden, finished off the Lady Trojans in the top of the fifth and WWU took game one by nine, while extending its shutout streak against HLG in its three meetings this season to 18.0 innings.
 
The offense totaled nine hits, led by the 2-3-4-5 hitters of Shelby LeCuru, Scharnhorst, Lindsey LeCuru and Murphy doing the most damage, as they combined to go 6-for-10, with five runs scored and nine RBI.
 
Sicht, who came into the game batting .444 her last eight games, continued to swing the bat well, finishing game one 2-for-2, while Campbell went 1-for-1 and scored a game-high three runs.
 
William Woods University 5 Hannibal-LaGrange 0
Just like they did in game one and throughout the 2014 season, the Owls offense scored in the first inning, as Murphy's single thru the hole at second base scored Campbell, who led the game off with a hit-by-pitch, and put WWU up 1-0.
 
This was the second time that hurlers Becca Schemmer and Katy Akins squared off on the mound in game two, as the last time out back on Apr. 1^st at HLG, Schemmer got the better of Akins, hurling a complete game one hitter, as the Owls won 5-0.
 
In today's outing, both pitchers brought the best they had, as despite allowing 12 WWU hits, Akins got out of the inning when needed, as the Owls left 13 runners on base in game two.
 
The game remained 1-0 until the top of the fifth, as after a walk, a bunt single and another walk, the bases were loaded up for Macy Wierschem. The Waterloo, Ill., native, who is already having a career-year, had a productive at-bat, as she hit a sacrifice fly out to left, which scored Scharnhorst and gave the Owls some breathing room at 2-0.
 
Sicht then came to the dish and she took advantage of the first pitch she saw from Akins, as the junior hit a no-doubter over the left field wall, which put the Owls ahead at 5-0.
 
The Ashland, Mo., native, has been absolutely unstoppable in the month of April, as she currently is riding a six-game hitting streak, has slugged three home runs, two of which were grand slams and totaled 20 RBI to go along with a .386 average.
 
That was all Schemmer needed to pick up her 11^th win on the season in her final home game at WWU, as she did not allow a runner to reach base the final three innings of the game and the Owls held on for the five-run victory.
 
Schemmer, again just allowed one-hit against the Lady Trojans, while striking out three. The offense was led by Sicht, going 2-for-4 with one run scored and a game-high three RBI. Scharnhorst, Murphy, Sam Parsons and Sydnae Hatton also added two hits for WWU.
 
With the doubleheader wins on Apr. 1^st and today against HLG, the Owls shutout the Lady Trojans for 25.0 innings this season and outscored them 28-0, which goes to show how fantastic the pitching and hitting has been this year.
 
With the win, the Owls now move onto the AMC Semifinals at Columbia College and they will play the No. 4 seeded Freed-Hardeman University Lady Lions on Thursday May 1^st at 12 p.m.
 
The Owls and Lady Lions were the only two teams that were able to sweep its opponents in AMC Quarterfinal action, as Missouri Baptist vs. Park and Benedictine-Springfield vs. Columbia all will play the decisive third game on Saturday.
 
Fans stay updated on wwuowls.com on Wednesday Apr. 30^th for a full preview of the WWU vs. Freed-Hardeman game.

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