Ask senior Jeana Baker how important Saturday’s sweep of Cornell was for the softball team and she’ll say one thing: the two wins put the team back in the tough conference race.

“For some reason, no teams are dominating play,” Baker said. “Every game from here on out is very important.”

The No. 15 Storm won both games, 7-0 and 2-1.

“We started to hit well again, which is a positive thing,” senior Kate Brandt said.

The Storm built an early lead in the third inning after sophomore Halie Stalzer plated an RBI single. A missed pop-out brought in the second run of the inning to build a 2-0 lead.

Sophomore Allison Erichsen added an RBI single in the fourth to make it a 3-0 lead.

The Storm would put the game out of reach in the fifth and sixth innings by scoring a pair of runs in each inning. Sophomore Jill Mitchell had an RBI triple and freshman Shyann Warrick knocked in an RBI in the fifth inning. Brandt had a second RBI hit in the sixth to make it a 7-0 lead.

Game two proved to be a more difficult task for the Storm, but Simpson pulled out the one-run win in the bottom of the seventh after a Hohenke single drove in the winning run.

“The first game we played pretty well,” Baker said. “The second game, we had hits, just not at the right times.”

The Storm stands at 18-6 overall and 2-2 in the conference, just one loss out of a tie for first.

“We have an amazing defense,” Baker said. “We just need to keep hitting.”