April 23, 2023 – Some less-than-ideal weather over the last couple of weeks gave the Loras College softball team a chance to play extra conference games at home at Faber-Clark Field on Sunday, and the Duhawks took advantage of that chance with a sweep of Buena Vista University.

The Duhawks (16-11, 4-4 A-R-C) were actually the visiting team in the doubleheader with the Beavers (5-23, 1-9 A-R-C) after a recent rescheduling, but the Duhawks didn't let that change phase them as they won both games by 6-2 finals.

Game 1: Loras 6, Buena Vista 2
Senior Grace Houghton kept the hits coming as she got the day started with a booming two-run home run, her third in as many games, to centerfield to give the Duhawks an early 2-0 lead.

The Beavers responded in the bottom half as Duhawk sophomore starter Ashlyn Hemm ran into some trouble. A sequence of single-walk-single-hit by pitch plated the first BVU run before an error on an RBI groundout knotted the score at 2-2 after one frame.

The Duhawk bats stayed hot in the second inning as freshman Ava Franklin belted a leadoff home run to left field for the first of her career. Senior Abby Jones kept the inning alive with a two-out single, allowing Houghton to deliver an RBI double to increase the lead to 4-2.

After the shaky first inning, Hemm settled in nicely and allowed just five more hits across the remaining six innings. During that time, the Duhawks added insurance runs on RBIs from sophomores Emily Monahan and Clare Murphy to run the lead to 6-2 and help Hemm earn her seventh win of the year.

Hemm allowed seven hits and just those two first-inning earned runs while striking out nine batters.

Game 2: Loras 6, Buena Vista 2
Loras needed just one big inning to overcome the Beavers in game two, but it was the pseudo home team that struck first with one run in the bottom of the second via an RBI double.

That would be the only run of the game until the top of the fourth inning when the Duhawks embarked on a long and eventful six-run frame. Loras sent 12 batters to the plate in the frame as it tallied five hits and benefitted from two Buena Vista errors to take a 6-1 lead at the end of the half inning.

Three straight RBI singles for Franklin, sophomore Morgan Machovec, and senior Whitney Leipold ultimately forced BVU starter Kennedi Claycomb from the game as it quickly put Loras ahead 5-1 at the time. Houghton later tallied another RBI on a fielder's choice to push the lead to 6-1.

Sophomore starter Shandi Rulli allowed a solo home run later in the game, but that would it for offense as Rulli earned the win with one of her best starts of the year. The lefty allowed just seven hits across the seven innings with two earned runs and two strikeouts compared to just one walk.

Loras hits the road on Tuesday, April 25, for a conference doubleheader at Wartburg College with game one beginning at 3 P.M. in Waverly, Iowa.