Baker Softball Upsets No. 3 Drovers, Wins Four Straight at Season-Opening Tourney

ALLEN, Texas – Highlighted by an upset over No. 3 Science & Arts, the Baker softball team started its 2023 campaign in impressive fashion by going 4-1 in its season opener at the Southern Collegiate Sports Invitational this past weekend in Allen, Texas.

After dropping their first game of the tournament, the Wildcats rolled off four straight wins with two of them coming in extra-innings, including a nine-inning thriller against the Drovers and an eighth-inning walk-off against Simpson in the weekend finale.

OCU 5, BU 0
It was tough-sledding for Baker in its opening game of the 2023 season with the Wildcats offense being held in check by OCU starter Shelbey Cornelson. The Stars, who are coming off an NAIA Championship from last year, plated a couple of runs in the first inning and tacked on three more in the fourth while holding Baker to just three hits in the contest.

Makayla Akin drew the start in the circle for the Wildcats and looked to work out of the first-inning jam unharmed, but OCU came through with a two-out knock to take an early 2-0 lead. From there, Akin settled in to toss back-to-back scoreless frames before the Stars put up their three-run fourth inning to seal their season-opening victory.

BU 11, TC 1 (5 inn.)
The Wildcats' bats responded in a big way in their second game of the tournament, tallying 11 runs on eight hits to dispatch the Bluejays in five innings. Baker did the bulk of its damage in the second inning where the Wildcats rattled off eight runs. Mary Grace Hess had three RBI and a triple, while pitcher Skylar Gorrell surrendered just two hits and struck out five in her first outing of 2023.

BU's big second inning began on a bases-clearing triple off the bat of Hess, who came around to score on Parker Straight's double on the following at-bat to put Baker up, 4-0. Later in the inning, Straight was able to race home on a double-steal before Savannah Bray and Akin smacked back-to-back doubles to break open the game. By the time Akin scored on an Emma Ancira base hit, the Wildcats' lead had ballooned all the way up to 8-0.

After a Tabor solo home run in the top of the third, Baker came right back out with three more runs to increase its cushion. Straight came across for her second run of the game and Akin popped one deep enough to plate Kerstyn Finch. Another OCU miscue brought Bray around to cap the Wildcats' 11-run outing and a couple more scoreless frames from Gorrell enforced the run-rule for Baker's first victory of the season.

BU 4, USAO 2 (9 inn.)
Backed by a brilliant performance from freshman pitcher Kira Baker, the Wildcats came out on top of a pitcher's duel to upset the third-ranked Drovers, 4-2 in a wild, nine-inning game.

In her first collegiate start, Baker, who was an all-state selection at Eudora HS, pitched all nine innings for BU, striking out 12 and allowing a mere three hits. She battled with USAO starter Sophie Williams as the two pitchers each threw seven consecutive scoreless innings to send the game into extras.

The Wildcats finally cracked through and broke the scoreless deadlock in the top of the eighth with an RBI double from Gorrell. Then in the bottom half of the inning, Baker looked to seal the game there following a Drovers sacrifice and another strikeout, but USAO was able to leg out a squeeze bunt to extend the game.

In the ninth, Finch sent one to the fence to bring Straight home on an RBI triple and Akin added another run on a two-out single before Morgan Loggins' base-loaded walk brought Baker's final run across. The Drovers tacked one on in the bottom of the ninth, but Baker induced a couple of pop-ups to secure the upset win for the Wildcats.

BU 7, OPSU 3
Reeling from their big win in the Saturday opener, the Wildcats scored seven runs in the first two innings of their nightcap with (RV) Oklahoma Panhandle State to defeat the Aggies, 7-3.

There were plenty of hits to go around for Baker (12) as Bray, Akin and Hess each had multi-hit outings against the Aggies. The Wildcats used three pitchers in the contest with Akin (4.0) and Sydney Goss (2.0) combining to throw six innings of no-run ball while Rachel Gray made a relief appearance and struck out a pair of Aggies.

A hard-hit ball from Ancira put Baker on the scoreboard first in the bottom half of the first as Straight and Finch came across to put BU up, 2-0. Akin followed with a one-out infield single to score Bray before the speedy Ancira swiped home for her first stolen base of the new season.

Baker continued to light up the scoreboard in the second inning as well with Straight collecting another RBI on a single to centerfield. Bray smacked a one-out double to score Finch and would later come home on a single off the bat of Hailey Hatfield.

The Aggies looked to spark a late-game rally in the fifth, scoring three runs on consecutive two-out hits in the frame. That would be all the damage they could muster up though as Akin took care of the final two innings without allowing an Aggie to reach base.

BU 2, SC 1 (8 inn.)
A walk-off double from Straight in the bottom of the eighth of Baker's 2-1 victory over Simpson put the cherry on top of a terrific start to BU's 2023 season. Again, the Wildcats utilized great pitching from their rotation and capitalized on some timely hitting to score on both ends of the eight-inning clash.

It was Gorrell who started the game for BU and threw six innings, while allowing just one run before the freshman Baker came in and slammed the door shut for two innings of scoreless relief. The Wildcats pitching duo struck out a total of nine Storm batters with Gorrell recording five K's and Baker turning back four of the six batters she faced.

Hatfield put the Wildcats on top in the bottom of the first with a bases-loaded single that scored Finch. With Gorrell dealing, it looked like that might be all BU would need as the right-hander allowed only two Storm baserunners through the first five innings.

A leadoff walk from Simpson in the top of the sixth came around to spoil Gorrell's shutout as Simpson tied the game on a one-out single. The Storm tried to sneak another run by on a steal attempt, but were snuffed out at home by catcher Loggins to keep the game tied at 1-1.

After a quick 1-2-3 top of the eighth and a sacrifice that put Goss on third in the bottom half of the inning, the table was set for Straight to deliver the game-winning hit as the senior slugger came through to launch one over the head of the Storm right fielder and claim Baker's second straight extra-inning win and fourth straight win of the tournament.

Up next, Baker heads to Avila's 2023 Spring NAIA Invite on Feb. 18-19 in Kansas City, Mo. with games against Avila and Columbia on Saturday before finishing up the tournament on Sunday versus No. 16 Concordia and (RV) St. Mary-Woods.

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