March 17, 2011
Box Score - Game 1
Box Score - Game 2
BELLINGHAM, Wash. - Samantha Rutherford (Sr., Kenmore/Inglemoor) had a game-winning pinch hit single and pitcher Erika Quint (Sr., Silverdale/Central Kitsap) tied a school record for consecutive wins in a season as Western Washington University blanked Simon Fraser University, 1-0, in the first game of a Great Northwest Athletic Conference doubleheader Thursday at Viking Field on the WWU campus.
The Vikings, ranked No.7 in this week's National Fastpitch Coaches Association Division II Top 25 Poll, had a five-game winning streak snapped as they fell 4-2 in the second game.
Western is 17-2 overall and tops the GNAC standings at 12-2. Simon Fraser is 3-3 overall and in conference play.
In the opener, Rutherford won the game with a two-out single to right center in the bottom of the seventh inning to score pinch runner Karli Baumgartner (Sr., Silverdale/Central Kitsap) from second base. Baumgartner had been sacrificed to second after replacing Rachelle Berry (So., Alger/Burlington-Edison), who had drawn a walk.
The hit by Rutherford was just the second off Simon Fraser pitcher Kelsey Hawkins (1-2), who walked four and struck out one. The Vikings' Jessica Carey (Jr., Everett) had a single in the third.
Quint tied Western's consecutive wins record in improving to 11-0. She scattered three singles, while striking out eight and walking two.
In the third and fifth innings, Simon Fraser had a runner on third, but Quint was able to escape both times.
Quint, who lowered her earned run average to 1.29, threw her ninth complete game in 12 starts. She has struck out 122 in 76 innings pitched.
Western's Michelle Wrigley (Sr., Bothell/Inglemoor) had a school record-tying 18-game hitting streak (over two seasons) snapped. She walked twice and then was robbed of a base hit on an outstanding catch of her line drive by Clan shortstop Leah Riske.
Wrigley was 4-for-4 in the nightcap, her 10th double of the season scoring a run in the second.
Simon Fraser scored two runs in both the second and third innings off Viking pitcher Jenna DeRosier (Fr., Kelso) (4-2), who allowed just one single in the last four innings.
Riske had hits and scored runs in both Clan rallies. Brittany Ribeiro drove in two runs with a single in the third and Carly LePoutre, who had two hits in the game, had a run-scoring single in the second.
Cara Lukawesky (2-1) pitched the complete-game victory for Simon Fraser, allowing nine hits and walking three.
Besides Wrigley's four hits, Western got two each from Carey and Meghan Carrillo (Fr., Prundale, CA/North Monterey County).
Carrillo leads the Vikings in hitting with a .444 average (28-for-63), followed by Wrigley at .419 (26-for-62).
Western, which concluded a 10-game home stand, does not play again until March 26 when it travels to Central Washington University for a GNAC doubleheader.
