April 2, 2006
Box Score
TURLOCK, Calif. - Jackie Quint (Jr., Silverdale/Central Kitsap) pitched two complete-game victories and Nicole Walker (Jr., Kenmore/Juanita) tied a school game record with five runs batted in and hurled a shutout as the Western Washington University softball team snapped out of a long slump with three straight wins Sunday, the first two to close out the Tournament of Champions and the third as a non-tourney contest. All three games were played at Pedretti Park.
The Vikings, who improved to 10-16, had lost nine of their previous 11 games. They ended the tournament with wins over Cal State Monterey Bay, 8-2, and UC San Diego, 8-1, then defeated Cal State San Bernardino, 3-0.
Western had a season-high 13 hits and matched its season high in runs in each of the first two victories. Mandy Harvey (Sr., Coeur d'Alene, ID/Lake City) was 7-for-12 in the three games, and Ashley Osman (Jr., Federal Way/Jefferson) was 6-for-11.
Walker, who entered the day with a .105 (2-for-19) batting average, was 2-for-4 in the CSUMB game, hitting her first collegiate career home run, a three-run shot in the fifth. She also drove in a run on a ground out in the Vikings' three-run second and had an RBI-single in the third.
Harvey was 3-for-4, driving in a run with a sacrifice fly. Osman also had three hits for the Vikings, and Cortney Walton (Jr., Chesapeake, VA/Great Bridge) had two, one a run-scoring single in the seventh.
Quint blanked CSUMB (14-20) after a two-run, first-inning homer by Megan Russo. Quint gave up just five hits, struck out seven and walked one in the complete-game victory.
Quint, who evened her record at 7-7, also went the distance against UC San Diego (18-18), which scored its only run in the top of the first. She scattered five hits and had eight strikeouts, five of them while retiring the last 11 Tritons she faced.
Western scored six runs in the third, Osman and Liza Teichler (So., Sammamish/Skyline) having back-to-back two-run doubles, followed by a two-run homer by Jessica Wilkinson (Sr., Seattle/Garfield/UW), her third of the year.
Teichler also had a run-scoring single in the first and Amanda Shiflet (Fr., Stanwood) drove in the Vikings' other run with a double in the sixth.
Harvey was 3-for-4 with three runs scored. Osman, Teichler, Wilkinson and Ashley Barber (Sr., Camas) each had two hits for Western.
Walker, who had lost her last three decisions, pitched a six-hit shutout against Cal State San Bernardino (14-23). She struck out one and walked two in improving to 3-7.
Shiflet got Western started in the first, driving in a run with a sacrifice fly. Walton hit a two-out, two-run homer in the third, her third of the season. That puts her third among school career leaders with eight home runs.
Britt and Barber each had two hits for Western.
The Vikings finished 2-3 in the tourney. Two of their three tourney losses were to top 10 nationally ranked teams, 3-0 to No.8 Cal State Dominguez Hills and 6-1 to No.7 Cal State Bakersfield. The other setback was 8-3 to host Cal State Stanislaus.
Western is at home Friday (2 p.m.) for a Great Northwest Athletic Conference doubleheader with Western Oregon.
