Wildcats Win 11-Inning Marathon, Split Midweek Road Tilt at Park

PARKVILLE, Mo. – The No. 4 Baker softball team battled conference foe Park for 11 innings in a game one pitcher's duel for its fourth extra-inning victory of the season before falling on a walk-off hit in the nightcap and splitting its midweek series with the Pirates on Wednesday afternoon.

The two clubs traded blows out of the pitching circle with each team's starter tossing 10 straight innings of scoreless ball before the Wildcats broke through in the top of the 11th to take game one, 2-0. The Pirates got their revenge in the second game of the doubleheader, winning, 3-2 on a bases-loaded walk-off.

BU 2, Park 0 (11 inn.)
Baker right-hander Skylar Gorrell posted an incredible outing to blank the Pirates for all 11 innings of the series opener, tossing four straight perfect frames to start the contest and finishing with nine strikeouts for her eighth win of 2023.

While runs were hard to come by, Baker had multi-hit games from Kerstyn Finch and Mary Grace Hess who combined for five of BU's seven hits with Finch going 3-for-4 at the plate and recording the game-winning double in the top of the 11th.

Finch looked to have the game's first run in the eighth inning after opening the frame with a leadoff single and eventually working her way over to third with one out, but was thrown out at the plate trying to tag on a Makayla Akin flyball.

After reaching on a fielder's choice in the top half of the 11th, Parker Straight immediately stole second to put herself into scoring position for Finch, who smacked a pitch to the fence in right center to score Straight easily.

Finch came around to score on a squeeze bunt executed by Savannah Bray to give Gorrell a little breathing room for the bottom of the 11th, where the Wildcats ace was able to preserve the shutout by inducing three lineouts to the second baseman, Bray.

Park 3, BU 2
In game two, Baker saw its two-run lead get wiped out by a Park home run in the fourth before the hosts went on to walk off the series finale on a bases-loaded hit and spoil another solid pitching performance from the Wildcats rotation.

Akin drew the start for Baker in the nightcap and kept the Pirates lineup at bay for most of the game with only one of the runs being tagged against the BU right-hander. At the plate, Akin helped herself with an RBI single in the top of the third.

The scoring came on a little quicker than the day's previous game with Morgan Loggins putting Baker on board first in the top of the second with a sacrifice fly. Bray opened the second with a leadoff double and Emma Ancira stroked one of her two hits in the game to put Wildcats at the corners before Loggins' flyball was deep enough to plate Bray.

With gusty wind conditions in Parkville, the Pirates tied the game in the bottom of the fourth on a two-run home run that just stayed on the fair side of the leftfield foul pole before Akin went on to retire the side in the following two innings.

A couple of errors led to Park loading the bases in the bottom of the seventh before its two-hole hitter Nia Muniz walked the game off on a single up the middle.

The Wildcats return to Baldwin City this weekend to face Graceland on Saturday, April 15 at 1 p.m. before going out on the road for a Sunday series at William Penn on April 16 in Oskaloosa, Iowa.

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