Tabor softball sweeps Bethany and Bethel for 6-2 mark

After a cold and gray week, the Bluejays celebrated a sunny doubleheader sweep over Bethel College on March 31 at the Hillsboro Sports Complex.

The 7-1, 6-5 sweep improved Tabor’s record in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference to 6-2.

In Game 1, it took a few innings but the Bluejays bats finally came through to put away the pesky Threshers.

Josie Mora and Madison Primrose led off the second inning with back-to-back doubles that gave Tabor the early lead. Primrose scored when Taylor Kathler hit a pop single into shallow right field that got the better of the Bethel infield.

The Bluejays’ offense was stymied until the fifth inning when the wind once again benefitted Tabor.

Kathler reached on a fielder’s choice and stole second. A dropped pop-up on the infield allowed Madison Byrd to score and Kathler to go to third.

One batter later, Kerrigan Travens hit another high pop on the infield that no Thresher get to, scoring Kathler. Brittany Vankonyn­en­burg hit a ringing double to right center to score Byrd and Travens to give Tabor a 5-0 lead.

After Bethel scored a run in the top of the sixth, Tabor got two insurance runs in the bottom of the frame on a triple by Dani Calder scoring Madison Primrose and Raegan Ternes. Calder was 2-for-3 on the day with a double and triple and two RBI. Primrose also had a pair of hits. Madison Byrd was dominant on the mound, allowing just five hits and one run in the complete-game win. Byrd (8-6) walk none, hit a batter and struck out 10.

In Game 2, Tabor grabbed the early lead on a bases-loaded double by Dani Calder in the second inning. A run-scoring single in the third by Kerrigan Travens gave the Bluejays a 4-1 lead. But Bethel rallied for three runs in the top of the seventh to send the game to extra innings.

The Threshers scored a run in the top of the 10th, but with two outs in the home half and the tying run at third, Madison Byrd crushed a two-run, walk-off home run to right-center field to win the game. It was Byrd’s second homer of the season. Byrd (9-6) also was the winner pitching in relief of Hannah Jones and Marlee Baxter.

Bethany—On a cold and gray day in Hillsboro, the Tabor softball team heated up the diamond in a doubleheader 10-1, 10-0 sweep over Bethany College.

The Bluejays scored 20 runs in just nine innings of offense winning both games in run-rule fashion.

Tabor made quick work of the Swedes in Game 12, plating runs in each of the first three innings before ending the game with three in the fifth earning a five-inning, run-rule victory.

After allowing a pair of hits and a run to Bethany in the first inning, pitcher Madison Byrd dominated, allowing just two more hits and no runs in the complete game victory.

Byrd started the game with a walk and later scored the first Tabor run on a single by Josie Mora. In the second inning Byrd drove home a run with a two-out single that would prove to be the game-winning run.

In the fifth inning the Bluejays exploded for five runs to break the game open. After run-scoring singles from Madison Primrose and Raegan Ternes, Byrd came through again with a three-run triple to left.

In the fifth inning, Arizona Schraeder ended the game with a bases-load triple to put the Bluejays up by the necessary eight runs to win.

In Game 2, another huge third inning propelled Tabor to victory. The Bluejays sent 13 batters to the plate scoring nine runs in the third inning to blow open a one-run game.

Centerfielder Taylor Kathler had two hits in the inning including a run-scoring single. Kathler scored the first run of the inning on a single by Kerrigan Travens. Schraeder, on base via a walk, scored on a single by Brittany Vankony­nen­burg. Travens and Vankonyn­enburg scored on a single by Josie Mora. Madison Primrose followed with a triple scoring Mora then scored on Kathler’s second hit after Raegan Ternes reached on a walk.

Ternes scored on a single by Madison Byrd and Byrd and Kathler rounded out the scoring on a single by Schraeder.

The 10 runs were more than enough for Madison Byrd, who started both ends of the doubleheader. Byrd fired a complete game, three-hit shutout, walking one and striking out three.

Coming— The Bluejays, 14-15, 6-2 in KCAC, have now won five straight and are schedule to travel to Univer­sity of Saint Mary Tuesday, April 4. —Tabor College

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