RIPON, Wis. - The Red Hawks moved into a third-place tie in the Midwest Conference standings Wednesday afternoon, defeating Monmouth 1-0 and 3-1 to complete a sweep of the Fighting Scots. Ripon has now won eight of their last nine games, which marks the first time they've accomplished that feat since the 2012 season. They have also won 11 of their last 13 contests.

The day's first game featured a pitcher's duel that saw the only run come in the bottom of the fourth inning when a one-out single by Brooke Bauer scored Lexi Reetz from third base.

With Ripon leading 1-0, Reetz took it from there, allowing just two hits the rest of the game, en route to her fifth shutout of the season. She also struck out five batters, while allowing just five hits in the game.

Monmouth's Liz Hippen (10-6) also pitched well in the loss, allowing one run on seven hits and striking out four.

In the nightcap, Ripon (16-16, 10-4 MWC) completed the sweep with a 3-1 victory, despite falling behind 1-0 after Monmouth (17-15, 6-8 MWC) recorded an RBI double in the top of the fourth. Ripon answered with a run in the bottom of that inning when Reetz scored on an RBI single to right field by Julia Sanchez.

One inning later, Ripon took the lead on an RBI single by Micaela Encarnacion, before adding an insurance run on an RBI groundout, allowing Kayley Grabowski to score.

Lilli Smith started and allowed one run on six hits while striking out two, before giving way to Reetz (13-7), who earned the win by pitching 2.1 scoreless innings of relief, allowing just one hit and striking out two. With seven strikeouts on the day, Reetz becomes just the third player in program history to record more than 100 strikeouts in three different seasons. Her 13 victories currently place her in a fourth-place tie in school history for a single season, three shy of the school record.

Ripon will continue its quest for a spot in the four-team MWC Tournament this weekend when they'll travel to Janesville, Wis. on Saturday to battle Illinois College, which is currently in second place in the MWC standings. That doubleheader will begin at 3 p.m. at the Janesville Softball Complex, with LiveStats available at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ic/.