Springfield, Mo. – Evangel's bats came alive midway through their first game of Saturday's doubleheader against Culver-Stockton and propelled the Crusaders to a sweep of the Wildcats at the Evangel Softball Complex. Evangel won the first game 13-10 and the second game 10-0 in five innings.
Evangel trailed early in game one with Culver-Stockton taking a 4-1 lead in the top of the third. Evangel tied the game with three runs in the bottom of the inning. After a scoreless fourth, the Wildcats scored four in the top of the fifth to take an 8-4 lead. However, Evangel would score five runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 9-8 lead. The Crusaders tied the game on an RBI double by Megan Washam and took the lead on Taylor Kister's ground ball. In the sixth inning, Kiara Carrier hit a bases-clearing double scoring three key insurance runs to putting Evangel in front 13-8.
Taylor Kister threw three innings of relief to get the win. Carrier and Megan Washam each had three RBIs. Evangel banged out a total of 17 hits in game one with 11 of them coming in the fifth and sixth innings. All nine Crusaders had hits with seven getting multi-hit games. Six Evangel players had RBIs.
Evangel scored five in the first inning of game two highlighted by a Kiara Carrier grand slam. Evangel would tack on one run in the third inning and four more in the fourth. Kyra Parker earned the win with four shutout innings and Madison Barnes threw her first inning of the year striking out the side in the top of the fifth to seal the win. Kasie Zukow went 2 for 2 with a two runs scored and Caitlin Buckalew went 2 for 3 with two runs and a double for Evangel.
In the two games combined, Carrier went 3 for 6 at the plate with seven runs batted in, four runs scored, a double and a home run.
With the wins Evangel improves to 16-6 on the season and 5-1 in the Heart of America conference. Culver-Stockton drops to 15-9 and 2-4 in the conference.
Evangel is next in action on the road traveling to Walnut Ridge, Arkansas to take on Williams Baptist on Monday, March 28th. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00pm.
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