March 21, 2009
Box Score - Game 1
Box Score - Game 2
MONMOUTH, Ore. - Western Washington University left 19 runners on base as it was swept by Western Oregon University, 2-1 and 10-2 in five innings, in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference softball doubleheader Saturday at WOU Field on the WOU campus.
The Vikings had their record evened at 6-6, all of the games being league counters. They have lost five straight, scoring just three runs in the last 32 innings.
Western Oregon improved to 10-6, both overall and in GNAC action. The Wolves were led by the standout relief pitching of Jessica Wood, who six strikeouts in 3-2/3 innings.
Offensively, Western Oregon was led by Tyler Sutherland, who was 4-for-6, with two runs scored and three runs batted in; and Tierra-Lyn Cuba, who was 3-for-6 and drove in three runs.
In the opener, Western Washington pitcher Sarah McEnroe (Jr., Woodinville) fell to 4-3 despite giving up just two runs in six innings.
Western Oregon took a 2-0 lead as Cuba doubled in a run in the top of the first and Sutherland singled across another in the third.
The Vikings could not score against Wolves' starter Stephanie Albrecht (3-2), leaving 10 runners stranded during her 5-1/3 innings of work.
Wood helped her out of a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the sixth with two strikeouts.
Western Washington scored its only run in the seventh on a leadoff single by Michelle Wrigley (So., Bothell/Inglemoor), who scored on a passed ball following a walk by Meghan Flem (Jr., Hood River, OR/Hood River Valley) and a fly out, pinch runner Katy Kirschner (Fr., Bellevue/Interlake) advancing to third. But Wood struck out the next two batters to get the save.
In the nightcap, Western Oregon scored 10 runs in the first three innings, seven of them (four earned) off starter Jessica Rosencrants (Sr., Sequim/Peninsula) (2-3) and three more off reliever Alyssa Malland (Fr., Mukilteo/Kamiak).
The Vikings, who left eight more runners on base, scored on two solo home runs. Flem hit her third of the season and school-record 17th of her three-year career in the first, and Andrea Sherrill (So., Edmonds/Kamiak) got her second of the season in the fourth.
Sutherland and Jessica Hallmark each had two hits for the Wolves. Hallmark had a two-run homer and Cuba a two-run single in Western Oregon's four-run second, and Sutherland keyed the Wolves' three-run third with a two-run double.
Western Oregon starting pitcher Jessie Lessard (3-2) got the win, working three innings. Wood got her out of a jam in the fourth and closed out the contest with a scoreless fifth.
The Vikings and Western Oregon play another GNAC doubleheader Sunday, beginning at 11 a.m.
