Dominating pitching led the Statesmen softball team to a doubleheader sweep over St. Ambrose in Midwest Collegiate Conference play Tuesday.
William Penn (18-25, 11-7 MCC) won by scores of 7-1 and 1-0. The wins helped the navy and gold leapfrog the Queen Bees (21-18-1, 10-7 MCC) into third place in the league standings.
The home team, which avenged its own sweep back on April 1, got on the board immediately with two runs in the first highlighted by an RBI single by Bri Zerley.
Gabrielle Braniff then led off the second with a double and later scored to extend the edge to 3-0.
A solo home run off Brittanee Grove in the fifth inning narrowed the margin to two, but proved to be the only tally for St. Ambrose. Grove (10-6) permitted just one run on three hits, while striking out two and walking one.
WPU remained up 3-1 entering the sixth, but then blew it wide open with a four-run bottom half. Nine batters stepped into the box in the frame.
Braniff finished 2-for-2, while Sydney Edwards was 2-for-3 and Jorden Steele was 2-for-4. Steele scored two times and Ashlee Dennis also drove in two runs. The navy and gold held a 10-3 edge in base knocks.
Despite getting runners on base in every half inning but one, neither program could bring a player around until the bottom of the sixth; WPU actually loaded the pads in the fifth.
Marissa Pereyra led off the sixth with a walk and got to third with no outs yet recorded, but was caught in a botched suicide squeeze play. Fortunately, Edwards made up for her batting gaffe by singling up the middle to plate pinch runner Siarra Velasquez. Velasquez was on the bases for Chelsee Herron who doubled in the second at-bat of the inning.
Herron was 2-for-3 in the contest, while Pereyra was 1-for-1 with two walks. Grove was also 1-for-2 with a walk as William Penn outhit SAU 6-5.
Lunden Young nearly gave the run right back as she allowed the bases to be packed in the top of the seventh. Fortunately, she secured the victory with a fly out to lock up her fourth shutout of the year. The senior (7-11) limited the Queen Bees to five hits and managed five strikeouts against three walks.
Next Up: William Penn travels to Des Moines, Wednesday, to face AIB in an MCC doubleheader at 3 pm.
