St. Louis, Mo. – This afternoon the Columbia College softball team was back in action when they traveled to St. Louis, Missouri, to take on Missouri Baptist University in an AMC doubleheader. The Cougars, who swept Harris-Stowe State (Mo.) University on Friday night, were able to extend their winning streak to 13 straight games after defeating the Spartans by a final score of 5-0 in the first game and 7-2 in the second game. With the sweep, Columbia College improves to 17-2 on the season and 6-0 in AMC play.

Today marked a special day for Columbia College head softball coach Wendy Spratt as the first win over Missouri Baptist gave her 800^th win in her career. Spratt, who took over the program in 1995, has never had a losing season during her time with the Cougars and has won 40 or more games in seven different seasons including a 50 win season 2005.

In their first game against the Spartans, the Cougars were able to put together an 11 hit outing as they picked up their 16^th win of the season. They scored three runs in the top of the second, and one run in both the fourth and sixth innings to extend their winning streak to 12 straight game. Paxton Welch was the starting pitcher for Columbia College in this one allowing just four hits while striking out six in the complete game shutout. Offensively, the Cougars were led by Carly Spalding who went 2-4 with two runs scored and Theresa DeCosty who went 3-4 with three RBI's.

In the second game of the day, both sides struggled to get anything going for the first few inning of the contest. However, the Cougars were able to break the game wide open in the top of the third inning when they went off for six runs to take a commanding lead over the Spartans. They added another run in the top of the fifth inning and closed out Missouri Baptist down the stretch to claim their sixth conference win in as many games. Lauren McCroskie was back in the circle after throwing a no-hitter on Friday night and picked up right where she left off as the senior pitcher allowed just six hits and two earned runs in seven innings of work. In addition to McCroskie, Molly Carter went 1-4 with two RBI's and Rachel Sullivan went 2-3 with a run scored to round out the top performers for Columbia.

The Cougars are back in action on Tuesday, March 21^st when they host Lindenwood University-Belleville (Ill.) in the AMC Game of the Week. Columbia will play a doubleheader against the Lynx with their first game set to start at 2 p.m. at the Antimi Softball Complex.