GRINNELL, Iowa – It had been three days shy of two years since the Grinnell College softball team played on its home field.
 
The team's homecoming proved to be an overwhelming success Wednesday, as the Pioneers swept Knox College 11-0 in five innings and 4-2 to even their season mark at 2-2 both overall and Midwest Conference South Division.
 
Leila Bishop-Parise '21, celebrating Senior Day with Flynn Johnson '21 and Kaylie Eiden '21, led Grinnell's offensive charge with four hits on the day. That is the exact number of hits Knox mustered as a team in both games combined.
 
Taylor Durak '24 and Christin Hartman '24 combined on a one-hitter in the opener. Durak went four innings to get the win and fanned two batters.
 
Alexa Okada '24, Samantha Chu '24 and Mary Webb '23 each had two hits. Grinnell broke a scoreless tie with an eight-run outburst in the third inning. Bishop-Parise started things off with an RBI single to left, Chu and Webb each had run-scoring singles up the middle and Kami Anson '24 belted a two-run double up the middle. Johnson then hit a two-run double to left to make it 8-0.
 
In the fourth, Okada sliced an RBI triple to right, Maddy O'Bryan '24 had a sacrifice fly to left and Emma DiGiacomo-Zahller '24 had an RBI double to center.
 
Bishop-Parise strung together three of Grinnell's eight hits in the second game and Hartman tossed hitless ball through five innings. She was relieved by O'Bryan and then Kathryn Vermeulen, with the latter getting the save.
 
The Pioneers scored three runs in the second, one on Johnson's RBI double to left and two more coming on Bishop-Parise's two-run double to center. Bishop-Parise added an RBI single up the middle in the fourth.
 
The Prairie Fire, 1-13 overall and 0-4 in the league, got all their runs in the sixth inning.
 
The same two teams meet Thursday in Galesburg, Ill. The first pitch of the doubleheader is at 3 p.m.