Avila Earns Critical Late Season Sweep of Bethel

NORTH NEWTON, Kan. – In their second-to-last doubleheader of the 2024 KCAC season, Avila softball (30-16, 17-7 KCAC) earned a pair of critical wins over Bethel (13-23, 8-16 KCAC) on Saturday afternoon, keeping the Eagles firmly in the mix for a top four seed in the KCAC Tournament in less than two weeks.

Avila was the last unbeaten team in the conference, but since the Eagles suffered their first defeat of the KCAC season the rest of the league has started to pick up some slack, muddying the waters at the top of the league table. With Saturday's action complete, Avila is one of three teams tied for third place with a 17-7 mark in league play – and Friends is one of the other two tied teams, meaning Tuesday's pair of games in the regular season conference finale between the two schools looms even larger.

Saturday's first game featured a matchup of two of the top underclass pitchers in the KCAC this season, McKayla Cotton for Avila against Madelaine Debs of Bethel. And just as she did against Maddy Wiese of Oklahoma Wesleyan on Wednesday, Cotton outdueled Debs on Saturday, helping lead the Eagles to a win in the series opener.

An RBI single from Taylor SanFilippo gave the Threshers a 3-2 lead after three, but the Eagles finally broke through in a big way against Debs in the fourth, thanks to RBI singles from all of Julia Douglass, Maya Richards, and Cotton. Stephanie Hayes then brought Katie Wentworth home in the sixth inning to put the visitors up by three, and Cotton worked around a one-out single in the seventh to wrap up the complete-game victory in a 7-4 win for the Eagles in the series opener.

Avila got all of its offense in only two innings in game two, but that was all the offense the Eagles would need in support of an excellent relief outing from Madyson Withey. Avila erupted for three runs in the first inning against Debs, who made her second start of the day for the Threshers, when Hayes drove in Chelsea Kurtz with a sacrifice fly, Ka'Zem Wood scored on an error, and then Hallie Campbell drove in Douglass with an RBI triple.

The Threshers weren't down long, however: a wild pitch got Bethel on the board in the second, and then an Eagle error extended the third and helped enable Bethel to score three and grab the lead for the first time on a two-run triple by Ashlyn Rushing off Chaunelle Penn. Only one of those four runs was earned, but it was enough to put the Threshers in front.

Bethel has struggled to find to a reliable second option behind Debs all year, and, armed with a lead of just one, the Threshers went to Emily DeMartino out of the bullpen in the fourth inning after Debs threw the front three. She survived a scare in the fourth inning, but the Eagles made good on their chances against her in the fifth to grab the lead back. With one out, Campbell pinch hit and drew a walk, advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt from Myra Megli. With the bottom of the order up, Katie Wentworth punched a single through the left side, scoring Campbell from second to tie the game. And then the very next batter, Emily Branson, put the ball in play, beating out what was ruled an infield single and bringing in Wentworth from second to put the Eagles in front 5-4.

Meanwhile, the Threshers had absolutely no answer for Withey, who got the final out of the third inning after Bethel had scored its three runs and then shut the Threshers down from that point forward. Bethel managed one infield hit against her in the fifth, but after that Withey sent down the final eight hitters she faced, completely neutralizing Bethel's offense and making Avila's one-run lead stand up. Withey threw 4.1 innings in total, allowing just the one infield hit with three strikeouts and no walks to earn the victory, preserving a critical 5-4 win for the Eagles in a series sweep against Bethel.

Those two wins were exactly what the Eagles needed now heading into their final KCAC doubleheader of the season, which is coming up this Tuesday, April 23 in Wichita against Friends. Those two teams will enter the day with the same record in league play, setting up yet another important pair of games between the Falcons and Eagles. Action is set to begin at 3 PM; as always, you can watch all the action on the KCAC Network.