After coming away with a doubleheader sweep against University of St. Mary on senior day, the Baker softball team swept a doubleheader against Graceland University Tuesday.
Baker won game one 13-5 in five innings and followed that up with a 7-4 victory in game two.
Freshman Heather Gruber earned the win in both games and received run support that had been lacking the past few games. Gruber gave up a grand slam early in game one, but settled down to cruise on to an easy victory.
In game two, Gruber continued to shut down Graceland by throwing six shutout innings before Graceland scored four runs in the seventh following their coach being ejected. Gruber pitched six and one-third innings before senior Chelsi Taylor came in to record the save.
“The offense came along and really helped me out,” Gruber said. “It felt really good to get some help after a rough start.”
The offensive outburst was led by freshman Brittany Vollenweider, who had two doubles and six RBIs for game one.
“It felt good to get a few big hits to get us going,” Vollenweider said. “It was definitely a momentum builder.”
Head softball coach Matt Windle was excited to see more production from the offense after the team spent a lot of time in practice Monday working on hitting.
“We had been in a hitting slump for the past five to seven games and today we started to hit the ball really well,” Windle said. “Hopefully we can carry momentum into our next few games.”
The softball team has no more home games on the schedule for the season, but has three road games left to play, including two against conference opponents.
The Wildcats are looking to add to a five-game winning streak as they play Evangel University Saturday, William Woods University Sunday and finish the regular season against Central Methodist University Tuesday.
“We definitely took care of business today, but we need to beat Evangel and Central Methodist because we are kind of on the bubble right now for getting into the conference tournament,” Windle said.
Tuesday’s sweep of the doubleheader against Graceland gives Baker a record of 16-24 overall and 6-10 in conference games for the season.
