BASS’ HUGE DAY POWERS DRAGONS TO SWEEP

Hutchinson CC Sports Information

GREAT BEND – Sophomore Raven Bass hit two home runs and had five total hits on Wednesday as the Hutchinson Community College Softball team swept its second-straight doubleheader to start the 2018 season.

Bass hit two homers and sophomore Ashton Reynolds added a third to back D.J. Cannon's 20th career victory as Hutchinson defeated Barton 6-1 in the opener at Cougar Field. Bass added three more hits while Cannon, Brynne Stockman and Shelby Felvus each drove in two runs in the Blue Dragons' 9-4 win in the second game.

The Blue Dragons improve to 4-0 as they embark on a 10-game road swing over the next three weeks and won't return to Fun Valley until March 13. Barton falls to 0-4 to start the season.

GAME 1 RECAP
After falling behind 1-0 in the second inning, Hutch's power show started in the fourth. Leading off the fourth, Bass hit a line-drive homer well over the centerfield wall to tie the game.

The Blue Dragons took full control with a four-run fifth. After Bekah Roberts bunted for a one-out single, Reynolds hit her first home run of the season to give Hutch a 3-1 lead. With two out in the same inning, Kiara DeCrane doubled and Bass struck again for an opposite-field two-run home run to right for a 5-1 Dragon lead.

Reynolds added an RBI single in the sixth inning.

That was more than enough run support for Cannon, who earned her 20th career pitching victory as a Blue Dragon in moving to 2-0 for the season. Cannon gave up a second-inning solo home run to Emma Horsh, but no more. Cannon allowed four hits, walked four and hit a batter, but struck out a season-high nine in the victory. Cannon pitched most of the game with runners on base as Barton stranded nine runners in the game.

Bass led Hutch's nine-hit attack going 2 for 4 with three RBIs and two runs scored. Reynolds was 2 for 4 with three RBIs. Izzy Godinez was 2 for 4. With a first-inning single, she ran her consecutive hit streak to seven-straight at-bats to start the season. She was retired for the first time this season with a second-inning groundout.

DeCrane had Hutch's only other extra-base hit, a double in the fifth inning.

GAME 2 RECAP
The Blue Dragons exploded for five runs in the first inning of Game 2. Cannon drove a two-run single up the middle to get the inning started. Stockman reached on an error that brought in a run and Felvus completed the inning with a two-run single.

The Dragons tacked on two unearned runs in the second and single runs in the fifth and sixth innings.

The Blue Dragons had 11 hits in Game 2 off three Barton pitchers.

Bass went 3 for 3 with a run scored. Kameron Pope went 2 for 4 with a double and two runs scored. Reynolds was also 2 for 4 with two runs scored and an RBI.

That was plenty of run support for sophomore pitcher Destiny Schulze, who worked her second-straight complete and improved to 2-0.

Schulze struck out a career-high seven batters and allowed eight hits and four earned runs, while walking five. She had her consecutive scoreless inning streak snapped at 9 1-3 innings when Barton played a single run in the fifth.