SENATOBIA – Sixteen different Rangers recorded at least one hit on Friday, as Northwest swept Arkansas Baptist by a pair of 20-0 finals in three innings.
Northwest improved to 6-6 with the sweep and will ride a four-game winning streak into Holmes for the conference-opener Tuesday.
Freshman
Harley Smith was one of several Rangers to have a big performance at the plate, finishing 3-for-3 with two doubles, a triple and seven RBIs. Sophomore
Tori Luke went 4-for-4 with a double and 4 RBIs at the plate, complimented by four strikeouts and no hits allowed in the circle in Game 1, and
Sarah Taylor was 4-for-4 with a double and three RBIs.
In the opener, Northwest churned out the runs in the bottom of the first to quickly put the game out of reach at 15-0.
Ally Judkins got the scoring started with an RBI-single to third base and
Sallie Rose Carver's single to right field scored Judkins for a 2-0 lead. A pair of back-to-back RBIs from Luke and
Allison Williams stretched the Rangers' lead to 4-0. Judkins added a three-run inside-the-park home run in the frame as the Rangers piled up 15 runs on 11 hits.
Mary Thornburg's two-run single in the second, followed by
Morgan Gresham's RBI-single capped the scoring.
Luke scattered four strikeouts in two innings to improve to 3-2, while
Leeah Henson struck out the side looking in the third to close out the victory.
Northwest scored 15 runs on 12 hits and benefited from three Lady Buffalo errors in the first inning of Game 2 to quickly put the game out of reach.
The Rangers batted around twice in the first, highlighted by bases-clearing doubles from Smith and
Sarah Taylor. Gresham added a two-run inside-the-park home run in the second for the run-rule win in under an hour.
Henson got the win in one inning of work, with Carver and Smith tossing an inning apiece and combining for six strikeouts.
Northwest will open conference play on Wednesday, March 8 at Holmes. First pitch of the twinbill is set for 1 p.m.
