MT. CARMEL, Ill. -- A walk-off double by Taylor Wilke in Game 1 spurred the Lady Warrior softball team on to a sweep of their Great Rivers Athletic Conference doubleheader against Southwestern on Tuesday.
After the 7-6 win in the opener, WVC rallied again in the nitecap for a 7-5 victory.
The Lady Warriors have now won four games in a row, their longest winning streak of the year. Jade Montgomery's chargers not only improved to 17-27 overall, but they went over the .500 mark for the first time in GRAC play, now standing at 12-11. They moved past Southwestern (18-15, 12-13) into fifth place in the 10-team league race.
With two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, Wilke took a 2-1 pitch and lined it into right for a double, scoring Gracee Sullivan and Marisa Lane with the game-winning runs in the opener.
It was a dramatic bailout for WVC, which led 4-0 after scoring two runs in the first and third innings. Sullivan hit her second home run of the season, a two-run shot in the first. Lane singled in a run in the third, after Heichelbech reached on an error earlier, allowing a run to score.
Southwestern countered with three runs in the fourth before going ahead 6-4 with three more in the sixth.
The Lady Warriors got one run back in the home sixth, on a base hit by Kinsly Heichelbech, to pull to within 6-5, setting the stage for Wilke's heroics in their final at-bat.
Sullivan had two of Wabash Valley's eight hits in the game.
Demi Wolfe started in the circle and went the first 5 2/3 innings. Kyrsten White ended up with the win, covering the last 1 1/3 innings in relief.
In the second game, Southwestern jumped on top with a single run in the top of the first. Wabash Valley scored three in the second for its' first lead of the game. A Wilke single tied it followed by an RBI hit from Kamille Johnson. Two runs crossed the plate when she ended up at second following an outfield error.
The Blue Storm did not waste any time overcoming their 3-1 deficit, scoring four runs in the third inning for a 5-3 lead.
In the home half of the third, the Lady Warriors tied the game at 5-5 on a two-run double to center by Wilke, who was 2-for-3 at the plate in this one.
That set the stage for more game-winning heroics, albeit earlier in the fourth inning. Sullivan drove home what proved to be the decisive run with a double to center that made it 6-5. Abby Mocaby added an insurance run with a sacrifice fly to make it 7-5.
Lexi Burris, the starter, and winner, then set Southwestern down in order in the fifth, worked around a one-out double in the sixth, then allowed two runners in the seventh before getting a ground ball for the final out.
Johnson and Sullivan joined Wilke with two-hit games at the plate.
Wabash Valley has a rare triple-header on the docket for Thursday, Apr. 20 at Lincoln Trail (15-16, 6-15). The first game begins at 12 noon CDT.