Wildcats Split Road Series at William Penn

OSKALOOSA, Iowa – No. 7 Baker softball received a timely hit from senior Morgan Loggins in the seventh inning of a 1-0 shutout for the Wildcats to secure a split with William Penn who took game one, 3-1 in a conference matchup on Tuesday evening in Oskaloosa, Iowa.

After the Statesmen won the opener on a sixth-inning rally, the Wildcats played spoiler in game two with Loggins' game-winner in the seventh breaking up a pitching battle that saw freshman Kira Baker earn her 10th shutout of the season.

WPU 3, BU 1
A three-run sixth by William Penn wiped out a scoreless outing for BU starting pitcher Skylar Gorrell, who allowed just one hit through the first five frames of another solid start, and stole a game-one victory for the hosts.

A one-out triple off the bat of Mary Grace Hess that reached the fence in right field scored Baker's only run of the contest with Emma Ancira coming home all the way from first base. Ancira looped a single to right to set the table for Hess' extra-base hit that gave the Wildcats a 1-0 lead in the second inning.

After giving up three hits and a run in the first two innings, WPU starter Chelsey Huff found her footing and stumped the BU lineup from there, holding the Wildcats to just one hit the rest of the way.

Clinging to a one-run cushion, Gorrell traded scoreless frames with Huff and notched her fourth strikeout of the game to end the bottom of the fifth before the Statesmen loaded the bases to begin things in their decisive sixth inning.

With one out and the bases loaded, a swinging strike on a wild pitch resulted in two runs coming across for William Penn as they added another run later in the sixth on a second Wildcats error.

BU 1, WPU 0
With both pitchers dealing in game two, the Wildcats came through in the top of the seventh with Hess scoring on Loggins' RBI single to back a brilliant start for the pitcher Baker, who struck out 15 in her return to the circle.

Loggins had herself a multi-hit game to pace a BU team that registered just five hits in the game with the Wildcats catcher smacking her fourth double of the season in the top of the fifth before the game-winner in her next at-bat.

The lefty Baker recorded her first six outs via strikeouts to set the tone early, while going on to whiff nine more WPU batters to mark her sixth game this spring with at least 15 strikeouts.

William Penn led off the home half of the seventh with an infield single and added another one later in the inning to create some two-out drama, but Baker was able to get the final out on a slow roller to give the Wildcats their 18th shutout of the season.

Baker heads into its final weekend of the 2023 regular season by hosting MidAmerica Nazarene on Friday, April 28 with first pitch of the home finale starting at 4 p.m. at Cavaness Field in Baldwin City, Kan.

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