By Tim Stried, SID
April 23, 2002

Extending their winning streak to six straight games, the Bluffton College softball team swept a double-header from Franklin College on Saturday at Marbeck Field to end the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season schedule with a 9-4-1 record.

The Beavers remain unbeaten at home this season with a perfect 8-0 record and will put that streak to the test Tuesday afternoon against Alma College. BC travels to Ohio Northern on Thursday and to Kalamazoo on Saturday before entering the HCAC tournament on May 3 and 4.

Bluffton swept Anderson on Thursday in a pair of tightly contested games, as the Beavers won the first game 2-0 and pulled out the second game 4-3.

In the first game against AU, sophomore Amanda Payne's two-out double in the bottom of the sixth inning drove in both BC runs and senior Emily Kurtz struck out eight hitters allowed just three hits. In the nightcap, the Beavers once again scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning with two outs, this time as freshman Mandy Snider's double scored freshman Allison Lange from first base. Freshman Janeen Arps pitched all seven innings to pick up her third win of the season.

Both games against Franklin Saturday were decided by just one run as the Beavers won the first game 3-2 in extra innings and notched a 1-0 victory in game two.

In game one Saturday, Kurtz set down 18 of the first 19 batters she faced and didn't allow a hit until the seventh inning when Franklin scored two runs to take a 2-1 lead. Lange scored on a passed ball in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the game, however, and sophomore Stephanie Rush's game-winning hit in the bottom of the eighth scored junior Melissa Alexander as BC won 3-2.

In game two against Franklin, Arps didn't allow a run and gave up just four hits, while Rush once again provided the game-winning hit with a single in the third inning, which scored sophomore Paula Fry and the Beavers would go on to win the game 1-0.