BALDWIN CITY, Kan.- William Woods softball (13-16, 7-6 Heart) battled the elements as they took the trip to take on the Baker Wildcats (17-12, 5-5 Heart) for their first Heart of America Athletic Conference meeting. The Wildcats ended the day with two notches in the win column, defeating the Owl by one run in each contest.
Game one saw a lapse in offense for both teams, with only one run being scored in the contest. William Woods' arms Taylor Baumhoer, who started the game, and Kiley Grubbs, who threw innings three through six, held the Wildcat offense at bay for five innings. The tandem tallied three strikeouts and allowed as many hits, with one lone run being scored in the bottom of the sixth inning on an Owls' miscue. The Wildcats held firm in the seventh, not allowing a run, to take the first matchup 1-0.
In game two, William Woods was first on the scoreboard with a run in the top half of the sixth inning. With two outs in the frame, Addie Rhea tripled down the line to give Grubbs the first chance to tally an RBI on the day for the Owls. Grubbs, barreled up a fastball through the right side to score the first run of the contest for either team.
Having already retired 18 hitters, Hailey Robinson looked to close out the game in the bottom of the seventh. She was able to retire her leadoff hitter before giving up a single to the speedy Baker centerfielder. The speedster swiped second base before the next hitter was retired by Robinson. With two outs, and the game on the line, the Wildcats elected to keep the pressure on with another effort to steal a base. The runner safely reached third, before an errant throw from the Owls backstop allowed the runner to score and tie the game. Robinson was able to retire her last hitter of the frame the next pitch, giving way for extra-inning conference softball play.
Neither team was able to scratch a run in the eighth or ninth innings, setting up a tenth inning which would feature the International Tie Breaking rule that places a runner on second base in an effort to speed up the game.
Brooklynn Spillman represented the go-ahead run for the Owls in the frame, as she was awarded second base via the ITB rules. After a shallow fly ball failed to advance the runner, Lexi Lewis singled right up the middle to put runners at the corners with one away. The speedy Lewis swiped second before Mariah Prince leveled a sacrifice fly to score Spillman from third and put Lewis just 90 feet away. The Wildcat's hurler was able to find her last out of the inning before William Woods could collect anymore damage.
In the bottom half of the frame, the Owls retired the first hitter on a groundball to the right side that advanced the tying run to third base. Baker was able to tie the meeting with a base knock to shallow right field that score the runner from third base and put the walk-off run at first. After the runner swiped second base, William Woods was able to force a flyout to secure their second out of the inning. With two down in the frame, the Wildcats three-hole was able to elevated a base hit over the defense to secure the 3-2 win for Baker and the series sweep.
William Woods returns this weekend with double header matchups at Graceland University and Peru State College on Friday and Saturday respectively.
