COLUMBIA, Mo. - On a windy Friday evening, William Woods University (6-5) and crosstown, NCAA Division III Westminster College (0-4) made the trip down I-70 West to Battle High School for the Owls' home-opening doubleheader - initially scheduled for Saturday at Backer Sports Complex. Getting the wins in two different ways, The Woods short-gamed the Blue Jays in a 14-0 4½ inning triumph in Game 1, then the Owls avoided a long game and walked it off in a 1-0 Game 2 victory.
"Well, first of all, had two really great pitching performances," William Woods softball coach
Tracy Gastineau said. "When you have that, that energy just helps. Two very different ballgames. Scored a lot in the first game and had a big lead, and then a really tight one in the second one. But when we've got pitching performances like we do, we always feel like we're in it, and that's just going to help."
Putting up a football-like score in Game 1, the Owls plated 14 runs on 12 hits and committed two errors, while the Blue Jays had no runs on no hits and four errors.
Showing her "bulldog mentality" in front of William Woods' home crowd for the first time,
Taylor Baumhoer (4-2) tossed the first no-hitter of her career. Going all five innings, she punched out nine of a possible 15 hitters and walked two, using 73 pitches.
Baumhoer got all the run support she needed, with the Owls scoring in all but one of their four innings at the plate.
In the bottom of the first,
Corynne Miller scored with two outs when
Jessica Keilholz reached first base on an error by the third baseman.
William Woods had its best inning on the night in the second, scoring eight runs on nine hits and one error to increase its lead to 9-0. Back at her high school stomping grounds,
Brooklynn Spillman laced the softball into the outfield for a two-RBI triple. Spillman scored in the next at-bat on
Lexi Lewis' bunt single. Keeping the rally going, Lewis, during the next batter's appearance, advanced to second on a passed ball and swiped third base before reaching home on an error.
Down 5-0 with one out in the second, Westminster pulled its starter. The Owls got to the Blue Jays' reliever, reaching base in all seven appearances against her.
Ella Aguiar extended WWU's advantage to 6-0 on her RBI single, then
Addie Rhea had a two-RBI triple and
Rylee Hagens sent Rhea home on her base hit, the last run of the Owls' high-scoring second inning.
After being held off the scoreboard in the third, William Woods rattled its bats and put up a five spot in the fourth to set itself up for the run-rule win in the fifth.
Jaden Swift's single plated the Owls' first run of the fourth. Then, Lewis scored her second run on
Morgan Collins' groundout to the shortstop. With two outs, Woods added two more runs as
Kaitlyn Plassmeyer scored on an error, and Hagens registered the last of her game-high three hits and drove in her second run on her single, which gave Aguiar her second run.
In Game 2, the Owls battled it out at Battle and won by a soccer scoreline to sweep the Blue Jays. WWU scored one run on five hits and made no errors, while WC had no runs on three hits and committed three errors.
A pitch away from the century mark,
Sarah Randermann (2-2) had an effective outing in the circle, completing a shutout victory with seven strikeouts and two walks.
Randermann got out of tricky situations. The first was a one-out triple in the top of the first. After walking the next hitter to put runners on first and third, Randermann sent one packing and forced a fly out to center field to end the first frame. That same Blue Jay batter with the three-bagger had a one-out double to right field in the third. Randermann had her fielders help her, getting a pop out to third base and line out to second.
From the fourth inning on, Randermann was in cruise control, recording three straight 1-2-3 innings between the fourth and sixth - she struck out the side in the sixth - and only gave up a single in the seventh.
The Owls needed that dominance from their starter, as it was all zeros going into the bottom of the seventh. To begin the seventh, Keilholz reached first base on an error by the third baseman; then, she got all the way to third on Aguiar's single and a Blue Jay error in the next at-bat. Speedster Miller pinch ran for Aguiar and swiped second, putting two runners in scoring position with no outs. Following a foul out to first base, Fulton native Hagens called game, putting down a bunt single as Keilholz raced home to seal a series sweep for the Owls of Fulton.
William Woods finishes its busy weekend with a doubleheader against future conference opponent Missouri Valley College (2-4), beginning at 1 p.m. Sunday at Lyon Bowl in Marshall.
"It's always good to play the future, and we've played them the last few years," Gastineau said. "They're good; they've got some good talent and some good hitters, disciplined hitters, and things like that. It's good to get two wins and get that feeling, and hopefully, it'll carry over on Sunday."
