April 23, 2011
Box Score - Game 1
Box Score - Game 2
BELLINGHAM, Wash. - Erika Hendron (So., Redmond) pitched her first complete-game victory of the season and Michelle Wrigley (Sr., Bothell/Inglemoor) had a clutch two-run single and as nationally ranked Western Washington University snapped a four-game losing streak with a come-from-behind 4-2 victory over Simon Fraser University to split a Great Northwest Athletic Conference softball doubleheader Saturday at Viking Field on the WWU campus.
Western, tied for No.21 in this week's National Fastpitch Coaches Association/NCAA Division II Top 25 Poll and No.1 in the West Region, lost the opener 4-3 in 11 innings. The Vikings are now 31-12 overall and second in the GNAC at 19-9.
Simon Fraser, which has won three of six games with Western this season, improved to 9-18-1 overall and 9-14-1 in conference action.
In the nightcap, Hendron (2-1) allowed just four hits, all singles, walking seven and striking out two. She did not give up a hit over one stretch of five innings.
Simon Fraser took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a two-out single by Leah Riske. That stood up until the fifth, when the Vikings scored three runs, two on a single up the middle by Wrigley and another on a single by Caitlin Dotlich (Sr., Sedro-Woolley/Burlington-Edison) for a 3-1 lead.
Western scored another run in the sixth. Rachelle Berry (So., Alger/Burlington-Edison) led off with a single and after a walk, pinch runner Hilary Cosentino (Sr., Stevenson) scored on a single by Kelsey Anderson (Sr., Mount Vernon).
The Clan loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh, scoring one run on a fielder's choice by Riske in between a strikeout and a diving catch by center fielder Karli Baumgartner (Sr., Silverdale/Central Kitsap) to end the game.
Simon Fraser starter Cara Lukawesky pitched four scoreless innings before being relieved by Cortney McCallum.
Wrigley hit her 16th double of the season in the first. That is two short of the school record. She had two hits in the contest as did Anderson.
In the opener, Brittany Mayers' two-run homer in the 11th, her fourth of the season, proved to be the decisive blow for the Clan.
Simon Fraser broke a scoreless tie with two runs in the sixth. Riske hit a solo home run, her ninth of the year. Then with two outs, Megan Durant and Sammie Olexa hit back-to-back doubles for another run.
Western forced extra innings with single runs in the sixth and seventh innings. Baumgartner figured in both of them, leading off the sixth with a single, stealing second and scoring on a fielder's choice, and hitting a two-out double in the seventh to score Dotlich, who had reached on a double.
After both teams failed to score for three innings, Simon Fraser broke through in the 11th, the second international tie-breaker inning.
In its half of the frame, Western loaded the bases and got one run on a ground out by Dotlich. But Simon Fraser's Lukawesky (8-6), who allowed just four hits and one earned run in 5-2/3 innings of relief, was able to work out of the jam by getting two ground outs.
Western pitcher Erika Quint (Sr., Silverdale/Central Kitsap) (23-5) struck out 13 in 9-2/3 innings. It was the 11th time this season that she had fanned 10 or more in a game, breaking the GNAC record.
Western next travels to Northwest Nazarene for a GNAC doubleheader Thursday (3 p.m.).
