April 24, 2010
Box Score - Game 1
Box Score - Game 2
Box Score - Game 3
MONMOUTH, Ore. - Krista Bickar (So., Hoquiam) hit two home runs and drove in six runs and pitcher Sarah McEnroe (Sr., Woodinville) allowed just one run in 11-2/3 innings and was credited with two victories as Western Washington University won two of three games over Western Oregon University in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference softball tripleheader Saturday.
The Vikings improved to 21-20 overall and 17-13 in GNAC action as they won the first two contests, 6-3 and 9-0 in six innings, then dropped the third 5-2.
WOU, which entered the day riding a seven-game winning streak and leading the GNAC standings, dropped to 21-9 in league play and 27-16 overall. Central Washington regained first place at 24-8 in conference action and 29-13 overall with a doubleheader sweep, 9-1 and 6-5, against Northwest Nazarene.
Bickar had three-run homers in each of the first two games, and McEnroe struck out 15 and gave up just 11 hits as she improved to 10-8. Bickar has five home runs this season and a two-year career total of nine.
In the first game, Bickar's three-run blast over the centerfield fence keyed a four-run, sixth-inning WWU rally after the Wolves had taken a 3-2 lead with three runs in the fourth.
McEnroe came on in relief with one out in that frame and retired 11 straight after giving up a run-scoring single.
In the second game, McEnroe scattered seven hits in posting her fourth shutout of the season. The contest went just six innings because of the eight-run mercy rule.
Bickar hit her second three-run homer of the day in the second. Samantha Rutherford (Jr., Kenmore/Inglemoor) drove in three runs with a home run in the fourth and Michelle Wrigley (Jr., Bothell/Inglemoor) had a two-run double in WWU's three-run sixth.
Rutherford's homer was her first of the season and the fifth of her three-year career.
In the third game, WWU pitcher Erika Quint (Jr., Silverdale/Central Kitsap), 9-7, had a six-game victory string snapped as she gave up a pair of two-run homers to WOU's Jessica Hallmark in the second and fourth innings. That upped Hallmark's season home run total to 11.
Rutherford had three hits for the Vikings, scoring a run in the second and driving in another in the third with a single.
WWU's Rachelle Berry (Fr., Alger/Burlington-Edison) ran her hitting streak to nine before being stopped in the third game.
The Vikings are at WOU for a league doubleheader Sunday (11 a.m.).
