April 21, 2013
Box Score - Game 1
Box Score - Game 2
BELLINGHAM, Wash. - Home runs decided both games as Western Washington University split a doubleheader with Western Oregon University, winning the nightcap 6-2 after losing the opener 6-3 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference softball action Sunday at Viking Field on the WWU campus.
The Vikings are 21-21 overall and 10-10 in league play, and WOU is 23-24 overall and 12-9 in conference action. The Wolves remained fourth in the GNAC standings, as they look to wrap up the final berth in the GNAC Tournament, and WWU is fifth.
WWU's Rachelle Berry (Alger/Burlington-Edison) homered twice, her first four-baggers of the season, and Jordan Walley (Fr., Maple Valley/Tahoma) drove in three runs with another in the second game. WOU's Jourdan Williams hit two homers in the first contest.
Vikings' pitcher Alexie Levin (Fr., Everett), who improved to 9-6, blanked WOU for the first four innings of the nightcap. During that stretch, Berry hit a solo homer in the second and Walley had a three-run blast in the third, her team-leading fifth of the season.
Walley singled home a run in the fifth and Berry led off the sixth with another home run.
Walley was 2-for-4 with four runs batted in and one run scored, and Berry was 2-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored.
Levin, who gave up two runs in the top of the fifth, scattered nine hits in the complete-game victory. She worked out of a number of jams as the Wolves left 11 runners stranded.
Both teams scored two unearned runs in the first inning of the opener.
Trailing 2-0, WWU's Kristen Allen (Arlington) doubled home Kaleigh Keating (Jr., Salinas, CA/Notre Dame Salinas), who had reached on an error. Allen later scored on a sacrifice fly by Jackie Rothenberger (Coquitlam, B.C.).
WOU broke the tie with three runs in the fourth. After the Wolves scored on a groundout, Williams hit a two-out, two-run homer over the centerfield wall. She then led off the seventh with a solo shot over the leftfield fence.
WOU pitcher Hannah Pomeroy (12-6) retired 16 of 17 batters during one stretch before having to work out of a base-loaded, two-out jam in the sixth. A wild pitch in the seventh allowed Cheyenne Best (So., Big Lake/Sedro-Woolley), who had led off with a pinch-hit single, to score the Vikings' only other run.
Williams was 3-for-4, the two homers giving her seven for the year.
It was Senior Day for WWU with five seniors being honored. They were Allen, Melissa Becker (Puyallup/Graham-Kapowsin), Berry, Camille Depew (Seattle/Seattle Lutheran) and Rothenberger .
WWU closes out its six-game home stand Thursday (1 p.m.) with a GNAC doubleheader against Simon Fraser University.
