Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 It took 21 innings, two of homeruns and a record pitching performance but Monmouth stayed in the hunt for a Midwest Conference postseason berth with a 4-0, 6-5 win over Grinnell, the latter game taking 14 innings.

Junior pitcher Liz Hippen broke the career strikeout record, but it didn't come the way anyone expected. Hippen picked up both wins Tuesday by opposite means.

Hippen worked the full seven innings in Game 1, tossing a two-hitter and striking out six to pull within six of Shelly Orwig's career record set 14 years ago. Hippen's battery mate, Rebecca Gallis, gave her pitcher all the run support she would need with a leadoff homer in the top of the second as Hippen retired nine of the first 10 batters she faced. The Pioneers could only manage to get runners in scoring position twice, but each time the Scots responded by retiring the next three batters. The Scots added an insurance run in the sixth when Lauren Sperry drove in Maggie Hayes with a base hit. Hayes drove in a run in the seventh and eventually scored in the inning to ice the game.

Hayes and Hippen also played key rolls in the nightcap, a 14-inning affair that ranks as the second-longest in Monmouth history. Hayes ripped a three-run homer in Game 2 as Monmouth came back from an early 3-1 deficit and eventually scored the winning run in the top of the 14th.

Leading 5-4 in the top of the sixth, Hippen was summoned from the bullpen as the Pioneers scratched out the tying run with a base hit and a one-out double. The junior hurler then found her rhythm allowing just four baserunners the rest of the way and striking out 11 to set the new career mark at 363 Ks, five more than Orwig's previous mark. Meanwhile Grinnell matched the Scots pitch-for-pitch until the 14th when Hayes opened the inning with a double and moved to third on Carolyn Scherpe's sac bunt. Haynes then scampered home when Gallis' batted ball was misplayed to give the Scots a 6-5 lead. Hippen closed out the win, setting the Pioneers down in order in the bottom of the inning.

The Scots host Ripon and St. Norbert this weekend in a Saturday-Sunday MWC doubleheader.