Coming into this week, the Lady Blues faced the daunting challenge of playing a total of six MIAA games.

The games featured quality teams who at their worst could evenly match the Blues, therefore a monumental effort was required if Washburn intended to come away with some series wins.

Last Wednesday, Washburn went up against Truman State, and from the first pitch it seemed that the lady blues had pulled it together and were out for blood.

Williams, continuing her impressive play at bat, would open the scoring in the first inning with a home run, bringing her career total to 44. Her second would once again dazzle the opponents in the third as it gave Washburn a 2-0 lead.

In the fourth inning, after putting together a run of their own, Truman tied the game, and at the top of the eighth Washburn found itself trailing 3-2. At the bottom of the inning, Washburn rallied to tie the score, and reviving the disheartened crowd.

In the end, Truman was too much for the Blues, and showed it by scoring four in the tenth to take a 7-3 lead. Washburn added another run at the bottom of the extra inning to lose 7-4.

The second game was as different as night and day, as the Blues’ trio of Tish Williams, Lindsey Himpel and Lindsey Moore each had two hits to propel Washburn to a 6-1 thrashing of Truman.

Against Pitt State, the team managed to pick up its fourth consecutive MIAA split, losing the first 3-2 while taking the second 5-4.

In familiar fashion the Blues crept out of the gate, allowing the Gorillas to jump out to a 2-0 lead after three innings. In the fifth, Williams tied the score on a 2-run home run, her 15th on the season. The shot brought home Marissa Martin, who led the inning with a single to left. The Gorillas scored once more, this time in seventh, putting the score out of reach for Washburn.

After trailing 3-0 in the second game, the Lady Blues turned things in their favor, and went on to score all of their runs at the top of the sixth. Williams singled to start the onslaught, giving way to Himpel who collected her second home run of the season, ending up in a 5-3 lead in Washburn’s favor.

The Gorillas managed to score again in the sixth, but it was to no avail as Washburn ran away with the game 5-4. Podschun had three hits in the evening session, while Himpel and Duncan each had three RBIs.

As the Washburn Lady Blues went up against Missouri Southern, they managed to put together two quality games and picked up a pivotal shutout of their out of state opponents.

“Coming into the week we had been working our butts of concentrating on starting strong and continuing through the end of the game,” said Lindsey Moore, freshman.

It seemed their hard work paid off because as Washburn opened the scoring with a solo shot in the second on a fielding error by Missouri Southern. In the third, Moore scored Ashley Podshum and Dani White, followed by Maggie West, who had the other run to combine for a total of three runs in the inning. The final run in the game came from White, who picked up her 10th home run of the season.

Samantha Farris, in an impressive display of pitching, managed to hold Missouri Southern hitless until the sixth. Farris recorded 11 strikeouts, the most by a Lady Blue pitcher since Katie Greg back in 2003.

“From scoring in the very first inning it allowed our pitcher to come out confident knowing that she had runs behind her,” said Moore. “Added to the fact that the defense made no errors we were able to get two quality wins.”

In an encore, Farris recorded five strikeouts, leading WU to a 6-3 win against the Lions. Whitney Tapp had a pair of RBIs while Moore had 2 doubles and drove in three runs.