COLLEGE SOFTBALL: Odessa College ‘takes care of business’ in doubleheader sweep of Luna

For some teams, a day’s sweep is a solid outing.

For others, recording a pair of shutouts would be even sweeter.

And for others still, putting together two run-rule-shortened performances would be a best-case scenario.

But for the No. 13 Odessa College softball team, that’s simply ‘taking care of business.’

The Lady Wranglers did just that Friday, sweeping visiting Luna Community College with 11-0 and 8-0 victories to move to 10-0 in conference play.

“I’m really proud of my team,” Odessa College outfielder Mikayla Krause said after the wins. “I’m glad that we can still have fun when we play and still get business done.

Krause’s two-run home run in the bottom of the first in the day’s opener helped set the tone for the Lady Wranglers. She hit another two-run homer in the day’s finale.

Pitchers Winter Ridgeway and Brittany Kennett allowed just three hits each in their two shutouts in the circle.

“We did well,” Lady Wranglers head coach Karina Cannon said. “I can’t complain today. They showed up to compete, so I’m glad they did.”

Cannon said she was especially glad to see her team play focused going into the day’s action with Luna (11-22 overall, 3-7 WJCAC) — and in the second game of the day, after running away with the opener.

“That’s probably the biggest thing,” she said of that focus. “When you get runs on the board early, they tend to just think that it’s in cruise control — so just making sure that they stay up and realize that it’s never enough.”

Odessa College certainly seemed to play that way, seemingly never letting up on the visitors. Krause’s two-run shot was part of a four-run bottom of the first for OC in the first game. The Lady Wranglers scored another four runs in the bottom of the second. K’Leigh Arredondo’s two-RBI single started that scoring rally, and she scored an at-bat later when Vanessa Muro pushed her across with an RBI double. Krause’s RBI single pushed Muro home later in the inning to make it 8-0.

Krause was 2-for-2 with four RBIs in that one, while Arredondo finished 2-for-2 with two RBIs and three runs scored and Muro went 3-for-3 with two RBIs and three runs scored.

Odessa College started the second game in much the same way it started the first, once again scoring four runs in each the first and second innings to push in front. Krause’s RBI groundout marked the first score in that game. Christina Valdez’s RBI single and Bethanie Phillips’ two-RBI double put OC up 4-0 after one.

Ridgeway and Kennett each struck out five in their respective wins.

“It’s awesome to go out there and know your team is behind you,” Ridgeway said.

Like her coach, Ridgeway said she liked how the Lady Wranglers played with focus Friday regardless of how far in front they were on the scoreboard.

“Sometimes it’s hard to focus when you get that far ahead, but you always know that teams like Luna, they can compete with you, and if you start getting complacent they’re going to come back and score,” Ridgeway said. “So for us, we do really try to stay focused.

“On the hitting side and the fielding side we just tell each other to stay up, don’t get complacent, stuff like that. ‘Always come out playing hard.’”

Odessa College will look to bring its same focus to the diamond today when the Lady Wranglers return for another doubleheader with Luna.

Today’s first game is set to start at 11 a.m., with the series finale to follow at 1 p.m. at the OC Softball Complex.

“I told them in the circle that Luna is going to leave here knowing what they need to do in order to compete a little better against us tomorrow,” Cannon said. “So that means we have to step our game up again.”

Her team is focused on doing just that.

“We’ve just got to come out tomorrow and do the same thing and know that it doesn’t matter what happened today,” Ridgeway said Friday. “Tomorrow will be a totally different day.”