Get Your Brooms: Cougars Sweep Week of Double-Headers

After dropping two games to Aquinas College last week, the Saint Xavier University softball team hoped to pick up the pace this week and ultimately turn things around.

The Cougars swept two double-headers this week, the first on March 29 against Indiana University-South Bend, and the second on April 2 versus Cardinal Stritch University.

Game one against IUSB was won in a tremendous fashion, ousting the Titans 12-6.

Despite jumping on SXU for three runs in the first inning, the Cougars battled back against the Titans and scored seven runs between the second and third innings. They added on five insurance runs before the game was over.

SXU was propelled to this win with home runs from Morgan Haefling, Alexus Reese, Maggie Bailey, and Sarah Bowen.

Game two was a much more tightly contested match, the Cougars walking away with a 5-4 victory.

The Titans were up 2-0 after two innings, but the Cougars came back with one in the third and one in the fourth to even the game at 2-2. 

Bowen came up clutch in the fifth inning with a triple, driving in two runs. Brooke Koran singled to score Bowen before the inning was over.

IUSB scored two runs in their half of the seventh, threatening to send the game to the bottom of the seventh but luckily Julianne Claas shut down the rally to end the game.

On Sunday, the Cougars kept the same energy, sweeping Cardinal Stritch on the chilly Wisconsin afternoon.

The Cougars only needed one run to win this game but tallied eight, with two RBIs each from Lyda Robinson, Haefling, and Reese.

Alyssa Frey held the CSU to just four hits over five innings and piling up six strikeouts.

Game two was more of the same from the Cougars, with the scoring starting early with a home run from Brittany Schultz in the second inning.

It remained a one-run game until the fifth inning when SXU exploded for four runs. The Cougars went on to score two more runs in the sixth inning to beat the Wolves 7-1.

Claas went the distance in game two, recording five strikeouts and no walks.

Saint Xavier picks up play again on April 6 for a doubleheader against University of Saint Francis.