A solid offensive day for the Buccaneer softball team was backed by impressive defense and efficient pitching as Beloit College picked up two wins over Knox Sunday afternoon. The 7-0 and 5-3 victories mark the fourth consecutive win for the Bucs as they improve to 7-3 on the season. 

The defense was stellar in the opener. Beloit College doesn't have a record for double plays in a single game in their history books, but if there was one, the Bucs likely broke it Sunday with four in game one. Beloit got the offense going right off the bat, pun intended. Kaitlynn Taft led off the bottom of the first with a walk and advanced to second on a sacrifice from Briana Arteaga. Isabel Johnson lined a shot that curled around the first base bag and landed just inside the baseline in right field to plate Taft and give the Bucs an early 1-0 lead. 

The first double play of the game came in the top of the second. Following a single to center to open the frame, a ground ball to third had Maddie Moser fielding, hitting Alyssa Morris covering second and firing to Emily Stapay at first for the double play. A foul out made it a three up, three down innings for the Bucs. 

Defense led to offense as a walk, a Knox miscue and a RBI bunt brought in two more to make it 3-0 Beloit after two innings. 

In the circle, Maddy Pfortmiller sat the Prairie Fire down in order with a fly out and a pair of groundouts. The Bucs made it three consecutive three up, three down innings with another defensive gem in the top of the fourth, this time it went Arteaga-Morris-Stapay for the common 6-4-3 double play. Morris and Stapay connected for a third time in the top of the sixth as Morris hauled in a liner and tossed to Stapay for another double play. 

Fired up from the outstanding defense, the Bucs put together their best offensive frame in the bottom of the sixth. Bre Noack and Zoe Landolt registered infield singles to open the inning. Arteaga followed with a one-out single down the left field line to load the bases. Moser drew a RBI walk and Johnson cleared the bases with a double to make it 7-0 Bucs. 

Beloit sealed the game one victory with a pair of defensive web gems. A walk and a single put runners on the corners for Knox. The next batter hit a grounder to Moser at third. A clever fake throw to third had the runner taking off towards the plate as Moser turned for a neat little toss to Taft covering plate to easily tag the runner for the first out of the inning. The final outs of the game came on the Bucs fourth double play of the contest, although, this one was anything but routine. A pop up drifted into the Bermuda Triangle area behind third base. None of the Bucs could make the initial catch, and, as it wasn't a routine play, no fair catch was called causing some confusion on the basepaths for Knox. Beloit capitalized getting the force outs at third and second to end the game. 

Johnson was a perfect 4-4 in the batter's box with four runs batted in to lead Beloit's offense. 

Pfortmiller notched her second shutout of the season scattering four hits across seven innings while striking out two for the win. 

Following all of the highlight reel plays from the infield in game one, Noack tallied one for the outfield in the first inning of game two. With two runners on, Noack snagged a well hit ball in the right center gap on a diving catch to keep the Prairie Fire off the board. In the bottom of the frame, the Bucs took an early lead with Amanda Langford drawing a bases loaded walk for the first run of the game. 

Moser drove in a pair of runs on a rope to right center to make it 3-0 Beloit after two complete. Knox came firing back with a two runs on three hits in the top of the third forcing a pitching change mid-inning. Mackenzie Shawback lined one into the left center gap to add a cushion to Beloit's lead and make it 4-2 in the bottom of the third. 

Knox countered with a single run in the top of the next inning to make it 4-3. 

The final run of the contest was recorded in the bottom of the fifth as Beloit capitalized on three Knox errors in the innings. 

Pfortmiller, who had come in for relief earlier in the game, got out of a jam in the seventh. The Prairie Fire doubled and singled in their first two at bats but the Beloit defense bore down. Pfortmiller forced a pair of infield flies and a groundout to seal the game. 

Arteaga, Moser and Landolt each went 2-4 at the plate to lead Beloit offensively.

Pfortmiller allowed just one run and struck out three without issuing a walk to pick up her second win of the day in the circle. The junior is now 5-1 on the season.