Kansas University softball coach Tracy Bunge had to wait an extra inning for her team to win Saturday afternoon, so she delayed her squad for a couple of extra seconds afterward.

“You can’t let them off that easy,” said a smiling Bunge, who, after watching KU improve to 14-8 after sweeping Louisville and Southwest Missouri State for the second time in two days at Arrocha Ballpark, lined up her assistants and acted like they were walking off for a private meeting before spinning around and pointing out the joke to her team.

“I guess she thought she would be cute and play a little trick on us,” said KU junior Serena Settlemier, after the Jayhawks squeezed out a 6-5 victory over the Bears in eight innings in the nightcap.

While there wasn’t as much to smile about offensively for the Jayhawks on Saturday — at least compared to the monster day at the plate KU had when it clubbed six home runs and added another 18 base hits Friday — Kansas continued its hot start to its first homestand of the season by adding two more victories in the Jayhawk Classic.

Equally impressive had been Settlemier’s stellar start on the mound, Bunge said.

The right-handed junior from Kelso, Wash. — who pitched sparingly at the beginning of last season before being shut down because of pain caused by a metal plate she had had inserted in her pitching wrist in the offseason — helped the Jayhawks close out their first game against the Cardinals.

A day after going the distance for the first time in her career at Arrocha in a 12-2 victory over Louisville, Bunge inserted Settlemier into the role of reliever in the Jayhawks’ second game against the Cardinals.

Settlemier easily answered the call after replacing freshman Christina Ross in a 2-all contest in the fifth inning by striking out three Louisville batters while giving up two hits the rest of the way. Kansas then scored two runs in the sixth when junior Jessica Moppin led off with a single, and Louisville committed two costly errors.

“I’m definitely starting to get almost all of my confidence back on the mound,” said Settlemier, who first injured her wrist in high school and had been pitching through pain after three surgeries and the better part of five seasons.

Kansas University infielder Nettie Fierros throws to first base for a force out against Louisville. The Jayhawks beat the Cardinals, 4-2, Saturday afternoon in the Jayhawk Classic at Arrocha Ballpark.

“There’s still some slight pain every now and then, but I’ve just learned how to pitch through it,” added Settlemier, who led KU with 11 home runs last year as a designated player. “I’m starting to get completely comfortable out there. Now if I can just combine my pitching with my hitting, I should be OK.”

Kansas won the 21/2-hour nightcap in the eighth inning when Cyndi Duran scored from second on a bunt by Jackie Vasquez after SMS third baseman Charity Head misfired on her throw to get Vasquez out at first.

“It wasn’t the prettiest, that’s for sure,” Bunge said. “But obviously any time you can win at home, you’ll take them. Now we need to close the weekend out with a good win tomorrow.”

KU will conclude the Jayhawk Classic against Louisville at 11:30 this morning.