April 15, 2011
Box Score
BELLINGHAM, Wash. - Western Washington University catcher Jackie Rothenberger (So., Coquitlam, B.C./Gleneagle Secondary) went 3-for-3 and drove in two runs and Erika Quint (Sr., Silverdale/Central Kitsap) allowed just one hit and struck out five in 3-1/3 innings of relief work to get the win as the Vikings defeated Montana State University Billings, 3-2, in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference softball game that was suspended because of unplayable field conditions after 2-1/2 innings Thursday and completed Friday at Viking Field on the WWU campus.
In Friday's second game, MSUB rallied from a four-run deficit to send it into extra innings and Bobbie Lee won it with a walk-off home run to lead off the bottom of ninth. It was Lee's third homer of the season and her second in two days.
The Yellowjackets were the home team because the game was a makeup of one postponed last weekend at Billings.
Western, ranked No.20 in the latest National Fastpitch Coaches Association/NCAA Division II Top 25 Poll and No.1 in the West Region, is 29-8 overall and atop the GNAC standings at 17-5. MSUB is 20-20 overall and 15-13 in conference play.
Quint, 22-2 overall, suffered just her second loss of the season in the nightcap. Both setbacks were in extra innings.
In the first contest, the Vikings took a quick lead as they scored two runs in the bottom of the first. Rothenberger drove in one with a single and a sacrifice fly by Samantha Rutherford (Sr., Kenmore/Inglemoor) brought in the other.
MSUB cut the lead to one in the third on a run-scoring double by Nicole Colpron, but Western countered by scoring in the bottom of that frame on a double by Rothenberger for a 3-1 advantage.
The Yellowjackets again narrowed the margin to one, 3-2, in the fourth and had the bases loaded with two outs when Quint came in and struck out Colpron.
Quint retired seven straight before giving up a leadoff walk in the seventh and a one-out single that put runners on first and third. She then ended the game with two strikeouts.
Rothenberger hit safely in her first six official plate appearances of the three-game series with nine runs batted in before being retired in the fifth inning of the nightcap. In Thursday's series opener with MSUB, a 9-4 Western win, she hit home runs in consecutive at bats, driving in seven runs.
In Friday's nightcap, Western took a 4-0 lead, manufacturing two runs in the third and two more in the sixth.
Quint breezed through the first five innings, allowing just two singles. But in the sixth with two outs, Kaycee Hoffman hit her team-leading 13th home run of the year, a two-run shot, as MSUB scored four runs to tie the score at 4-4.
The Vikings, who left 14 on base, had runners in scoring position in each of the last three innings.
MSUB pitcher Kasie Conder (7-5) get the win in relief.
Western travels to Burnaby, B.C., on Sunday (1 p.m.) for a GNAC doubleheader with Simon Fraser University.
