Evangel swept the Baker softball team on Saturday, April 2. The two wins for Evangel move the Crusaders’ Heart of America Athletic Conference record to 7-1, tied for first place with Grand View. Baker falls to 4-4 in conference play, tied for fourth place with MidAmerica Nazarene.

“The HAAC added two new teams this year to our conference, but only top eight go to the conference tournament,” senior Ilona Miller said. “Getting swept at home put all that into perspective for us.To be successful throughout our season and especially throughout conference play, we have to find a way to win. (If) you lose the first game, you find a way to win the second game. If you win the first game you have to be prepared to come out in the second game more aggressive because you know that your opponent is trying to win because in this conference being swept will break you but taking both the wins sets you up for success and allows for a better seeding into the conference tournament.”

In the first game Saturday, BU freshman Olivia Brees was strong on the mound. She finished the day with 10 strikeouts, but sloppy defense in the top of the second inning allowed Evangel to score all five of their runs in the 5-2 victory.

“In the first game we had one inning that got away from us, but after that we competed with Evangel,” junior Elizabeth Stover said. “I have confidence that we are one of the better teams in the HAAC, and Saturday’s games showed us that we can compete with the best of them. That alone makes us better moving forward.”

In game one, the Wildcats could only strung together five hits total. Miller was the lone scorer on Saturday as she scored both of the runs.

“In game one we had five hits compared to their six hits,” Miller said. “We weren’t aggressive at the plate as a whole, and we relied mostly on our bottom half of the lineup to get the job done and we came up short.”

In game two, Kyra Parker of Evangel pitched a seven inning, three-hit complete game shutout. Evangel walked away from game two with a 5-0 victory.

“In game two we only had 3 hits and no runs,” Miller said. “You can’t win a ballgame with no runs. We struggled at the plate and we didn’t have any timely hits.”

The only hits of the game came from Stover, sophomore Stephanie Cardona and senior Kelsey Vollenweider.

“At the beginning of the season, we were good about stringing hits together and scoring runs, and in order to be successful against a team like Evangel (or any HAAC team) we need to get back to basics,” Stover said. “I think we will be successful as long as we relax and have confidence at the plate.”

Baker will next host Grand View on Tuesday, Apr. 5 at 2 p.m. at Cavaness Field.

“We have already seen how a number one team plays with the losess at home to Evangel,” Miller said. “The positive of that is we know what to expect come Tuesday and we will be ready to play. The way we played Saturday was not Baker softball and the losses reminded us of that. No one wants to be swept on their home turf and the two loses on Saturday hurt and we are ready to come play and compete.”