April 25, 2004
Box Score
WACO, Texas - No. 22 Baylor softball won its 40th game of the season with a 6-2 victory over Iowa State in action at Getterman Stadium. With the win, the Lady Bears improved to 40-12 on the year and 9-5 in Big 12 play. Iowa State saw its record drop to 11-26 and 1-9 in the conference.
The Lady Bears got on the scoreboard first with two runs in the bottom of the third. Amber Daniel and Danelle Arnold led off the inning with back-to-back singles and were moved over to second and third when Harmony Schwethelm laid down a sacrifice bunt. Carrie Leerberg made the sacrifice pay off when she singled up the middle, scoring both runners, to give Baylor an early 2-0 lead.
Iowa State responded when the Cyclones scored an unearned run in the fifth to cut the lead to 2-1, however, Baylor exploded for four runs in the bottom of the inning to put the game away. The key blow came when Kelly Osburn blasted a three-run homer, her seventh of the season, over the left-center field wall with two outs to put the Lady Bears up 6-1. Leerberg opened the scoring in the inning with her RBI single to right field to score Daniel.
Cristin Vitek moved her record to 25-6 on the season, as she allowed only one earned run on five hits in 6.2 innings of work to earn the victory. She also added five strikeouts on the day, pushing her season total to 202, and became the first pitcher in school history to record at least 200 strikeouts in a season.
The Cyclones mounted a small rally in the seventh, however, senior Katie Decker forced Ashley Killeen to ground out to third with two runners on base to record her first save of the season. It was an emotional outing for Decker, as the senior made her first and only appearance of the year following a career-ending shoulder injury prior to the start of the season.
Alyssa Ranson (8-15) allowed six runs on eight hits and took the loss for Iowa State.
Leerberg and Osburn collected two hits and three RBI each as Daniel and Arnold added two runs apiece for the Lady Bears.
Schwehelm went 0-2 in the game for Baylor and saw her career-high eight game hitting streak snapped.
Prior to the start of the game, Arnold, Daniel, Decker and Kelly Levesque were all honored as a part of 'Senior Day' as the foursome made their final weekend appearance at home.
Baylor and Iowa State were originally scheduled to play a doubleheader, however, poor field conditions cancelled game one of the twin-bill.
The Lady Bears will return to action when Baylor hosts North Texas in a doubleheader beginning at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 28.
