Eagles Split Tight Series with Swedes

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Avila softball (22-13, 9-3 KCAC) split its doubleheader against Bethany (19-17, 10-4 KCAC) on Wednesday afternoon at The Z, winning the first game and dropping the second in yet another edition of what's become a closely-contested rivalry in KCAC Softball.

Avila and Bethany have played a lot of important games over the last few seasons, and with both teams right next to each other in the KCAC standings with half of the conference season gone, these two games felt like two more important ones in the recent all-time series. While both final scores seem somewhat comfortable – Avila won the first game by three and Bethany won the second by four – in reality both games were close throughout, and both teams needed to work hard to secure their singular win on the afternoon.

Both offenses went down quietly in the first two innings of game one Wednesday before the Eagles quickly got to top Swede starter Sasha Martello in the middle innings. With two outs in the third, Chelsea Kurtz beat out an infield single, added to her KCAC lead in stolen bases, and scored on a base hit by Ka'Zem Wood to break the early deadlock and get the Eagles on the board first.

The middle of the Avila order was lethal in this game played a central role in Avila's biggest inning of the day. Julia Douglass hit a one-out single, and McKayla Cotton followed with a knock of her own, driving in pinch-runner Ellysa Butterfield. Talley Cole then followed with a bloop double to left, and Kat Wilds came up clutch, coming off the bench to chop a two-run pinch-hit single into center field and extend Avila's lead out to 4-0, knocking Martello out of the game in the fourth.

Reliever Jordyn Stelzig had her best appearance of the season for the Swedes, holding the Eagles at bay after she entered the game. On the other side, however, Avila starter Payton Walter was lights out once again. Walter retired the first nine hitters she faced, and though the Swedes were finally able to provide some traffic against her in the later innings, Bethany only managed to push one run across off a single from Amaris Guerra in the sixth. Bethany threatened in the seventh and had the game extended on an overturned call in the infield, but Walter recovered by striking out pinch-hitter Breana Buck as the tying run, wrapping up a 4-1 Avila victory to start the day.

Walter went the distance for the tenth time this season, allowing just one run on four hits with six strikeouts and one walk to earn her 11^th victory of the season. She is now 5-1 with five complete games in six conference starts this season. The 5-6-7 hitters in Avila's lineup combined for seven of the team's ten hits, led by Cotton's trio of singles.

Bethany's offense was stymied in game one, but the Swedes quickly made sure that wasn't the case in game two, erupting for four runs in the top of the first, highlighted by Lilliana Martinez's KCAC-leading 12^th home run of the season. Martinez also pitches the second leg of doubleheaders for the Swedes and was as good as she's been over the last month-plus: Avila threatened multiple times, but that big early lead was enough for Martinez and the Swedes to work with.

Chaunelle Penn helped right the ship with five solid innings of relief, allowing the Eagles to start to work back against Martinez. Wood led off the second inning with a triple and scored on a Cotton sac fly, and then Maya Richards singled and scored on another Cotton sac fly in the fourth to make it 4-2.

That was as close as Avila would get. Martinez helped her own cause once again, bouncing a two-run single through the shortstop hole in the sixth to reestablish a four-run lead for the visitors. Cotton pitched the seventh and capped off a brilliant all-around day with three strikeouts, but Martinez responded in kind with three strikeouts of her own in the bottom half, wrapping up a 6-2 win for the Swedes in a series split.

Up next for Avila is another tough road trip to face one of the better teams in the KCAC, Oklahoma Wesleyan, which is now receiving national votes and just split its own doubleheader against league-leading Ottawa on Wednesday. The two Eagle teams will face off on Saturday, April 8 in Bartlesville, with action set to begin at noon. As always, you can watch all the action live and for free on the KCAC Network.