Sanders Delivers 3 RBI While Nunn & Gardner Combine for Shutout Win

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – After a nine-day break between games, WKU Softball got back in the win column with a 5-0 midweek win over Lipscomb Tuesday night. The Hilltoppers saw Taylor Sanders connect for two hits and three RBI while Shelby Nunn and Katie Gardner combined for the two-hit shutout of the Bisons.

“I think it’s absolutely key that we come out and finally got another midweek (win) getting ready for Marshall for the weekend,” shared head coach Amy Tudor. “We got to see a couple pitchers for Lipscomb, so that was really, really good for us. I thought we played great defense, we pitched well and we got some timely hitting.”

WKU climbed to 28-8 on the season with the win while Lipscomb moved to 16-26 with the loss.

In just their second midweek game of the season, the Hilltoppers struck in the bottom of the first and kept their foot on the gas for the 5-0 win. WKU is now 17-1 when playing at home this season and 10-1 when scoring in the first inning.

Sanders and Taylor Davis both registered two-hit games. Sanders is up to 11 on the season and 18 across her career while Davis sits at 15 multi-hit efforts on the year and 38 across her career.

Sanders also delivered three RBI, including a two-run double in the bottom of the first to get the Hilltoppers on the board. She is up to 11 multi-RBI outings this season.

After Davis and Brylee Hage reached with back-to-back one-out base hits in the bottom of the first, Sanders brought the pair home on a double down the leftfield line for the 2-0 WKU lead.

Lipscomb connected for its first hit of the night in the top of the second before the runner would end up stranded.

Jordan Ridge and Davis got things going in the bottom of the third with a couple of singles before Sanders would plate Ridge with a single to shallow right field for her third RBI of the night. Davis would come around to score on a double steal with Sanders to push the score to 4-0.

In the bottom of the fourth, Randi Drinnon drew a leadoff walk to roll the Hilltopper lineup over. Ridge would replace the freshman on a fielder’s choice before Davis drew a walk to move her into scoring position. With two outs, Hage reached on a Lipscomb error that saw Ridge score from second for the final 5-0 margin.

In the top of the sixth, Gardner picked up her eighth three-strikeout inning of the season. Following a leadoff single by Lipscomb, the junior responded with three-straight punchouts.

Nunn worked the first 4.0 innings of the game, allowing just one hit and no free bases while striking out three before handing the ball over to Gardner in the top of the fifth. Gardner would toss the final three frames to qualify for her second save of the season in addition to striking out five Bisons and allowing just one hit.

Nunn climbed to 15-5 on the season with the win while Gardner picked up the second save of her career.

Lipscomb would never move a runner into scoring position in the game.