BELMONT, N.C. -- Belmont Abbey Softball ran its winning streak to nine games on Wednesday with a doubleheader sweep of Conference Carolinas foe Converse at Crusader Field. The Crusaders won the opener 13-4 in five innings, then took the nightcap 2-1.

The wins passed a 2015 run of eight games without a loss as the second-longest in school history. The record is 12 games, set in 2004.

THE OPENER

• Hailey Gass went 3-for-3 with three runs scored, while Payton Whitley was 2-for-2 with three runs driven in.
• The Crusaders posted an 11-hit attack, including a pair of triples from Whitley and Cameron Cooper.
• Annabeth Watkins (7-6) pitched a complete-game four-hitter with only two of the runs allowed being earned. She struck out three.
• Converse opened the scoring with two runs in the first, but the Crusaders exploded for two in the first, three in the second and four in both the third and fourth innings.
• Cooper's triple tied the game in the first; Whitley had a two-run single in the second and her run-scoring triple in the third.

THE NIGHTCAP

• Mackenzie Allison tallied two of the Crusaders' five hits.
• Gass had her fourth hit of the day, a single in the second. She tied the game when she came home on an error.
• The second run, on a sacrifice fly by Melissa Neyhouse, also came unearned in the second.
• Allanah Browne scattered eight hits, allowing just a single run. She struck out two in the complete-game effort to improve to 5-4.

UP NEXT

• Belmont Abbey continues its six-game homestand when it welcomes Southern Wesleyan to Crusader Field on Friday.
• First pitch of the doubleheader is slated for 1 p.m.