Box Score

LACEY, Wash. - It was a memorable day for the Richards twins on the Western Washington University softball team, as both hit their first career home runs, leading the Vikings to a doubleheader split at Saint Martin's on a rainy Saturday afternoon in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play.

WWU picked up the 9-8 win in the first game, and then lost momentum after a lengthy rain and hail delay in the second game to fall 10-5. The doubleheader split was the fourth out of six in GNAC play this season

The Vikings are now 17-14 overall and tied for 4th in the GNAC with a 6-6 league record.

Carlie Richards hit a 3-run home run in the first game, and twin sister Cylie hit a solo homer in the 4th inning of the second game to cap the memorable day for the junior twins out of Kennewick's Kamiakin High School.

Western continues its weekend GNAC road trip with a doubleheader tomorrow at Central Washington (26-6, 13-1 GNAC) in Ellensburg starting at 1 pm. Both games will be streamed and can be followed via Live Stats at WWUVikings.com/Live.

The Vikings built an early 6-0 lead, waited out a short rain delay, and then held on for a hitter-friendly 9-8 victory over the Saints in the first game of the doubleheader.

SMU out-hit WWU 14-11 in the slugfest, but WWU's late insurance runs proved to be the difference in the victory.

Carlie Richards finished a triple short of hitting for the cycle going 3-for-4 with 2 runs scored, 3 RBI and connected on her first career home run. Shearyna Labasan (2-for-3, 2 R, 2B, BB), Makinlee Sellevold (2-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, HR) and Emily Benson (2-for-2, 2 R, 2B) also added multi-hit games for the Vikings. Kali Patterson went 1-for-3 while recording a career-high 3 RBI. WWU's top 5 hitters in the lineup combined to go 9-for-15 with 5 RBI.

Richards lifted the Vikings to an early 3-0 lead with a 3-run home run in the top of the 1st inning. Labasan doubled to lead off the game and moved to 3rd base on a sacrifice bunt by Mackenzie Palmer (Fr., Federal Way, WA/Todd Beamer). After a pop out and a two-out walk, Richards connected on her first career home run with the three-run shot to center field.

Western added to its lead with three more runs in the top of the 3rd inning. Sellevold (Everett, WA/Cascade) hit a 2-run home run to center field and Paityn Cyr (Mount Vernon, WA) tabbed a two-out infield single to score the third run of the frame.

Following the short 20-minute rain delay, starting pitcher Anna Kasner (Milton, WA/Fife) got two quick outs, then surrendered an infield single and a pair of walks to load the bases. Sabrina Hicks then clubbed a two-out grand slam over the left field fence to cut the lead to 6-4. SMU again loaded the bases in the bottom of the 4th inning, but was not able to push any runs across.

The Vikings got an important insurance run in the top of the 5th on a sacrifice fly by Patterson (Bonney Lake, WA), which proved to be crucial as the Saints responded with a 2-run home run by Alyssa French in the bottom half of the inning to pull to within one run at 7-6.

WWU added two more insurance runs in the top of the 7th inning on a two-out, 2-run double by Patterson to cushion the lead to 9-6. Sellevold (1B) and Emily Benson (9-pitch double) led off the inning putting a pair of runners in scoring position, and after two quick outs, Patterson came up with the clutch double down the left field line.

The two extra insurance runs provided key as the Saints rallied for a pair of runs in the bottom half of the 7th inning. With two outs, shortstop Alyssa Slate drove home a run with a bloop single to center field and speedy leadoff hitter Lindsay Miller beat out an infield single to push home a run cutting the score to 9-8. Kasner then buckled down to get Lauren Diuco to ground out to shortstop to end the game, stranding the potential tying and go-ahead runs on base.

Kasner earned the win to improve to 9-5 on the season and 5-1 in GNAC play with her 11th complete game of the season.

Kim Nelson (8-6) suffered the loss for SMU allowing 5 hits and 6 runs in 2.1 innings. Slate went 3-for-4 to lead five Saints with multi-hit games.

Western Washington 9, Saint Martin's 8 (Apr 08, 2017 at Lacey, WA)----------------------------------------------------------------------Western Washington.. 303 010 20 -  9 11  1      (17-13, 6-5 GNAC)Saint Martin's...... 004 020 2X -  8 14  0      (14-11, 6-5 GNAC)----------------------------------------------------------------------Western Washington - Kasner and HughesSaint Martin's - Nelson; Maley (3) and SchmaelingWin-Kasner (9-5)  Loss-Nelson (8-6)  T-2:15HR WWU - Sellevold (2); Richards (1)HR SMU - Hicks (4); French (1)Weather: 40s Cloudy, Rain Delay after Top of 3rd

WWU got off to a solid start scoring 4 runs in the top of the 1st inning, but lost momentum after a lengthy hour and a half rain and hail delay in the top of the 2nd inning, and eventually dropped the second game of the doubleheader 10-5.

After holding the early 4-0 lead, Saint Martin's out-scored the Vikings 10-1 over the final five innings.

The Vikings wasted little time jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the 1st inning chasing SMU starter Jessica O'Toole from the game. Makinlee Sellevold opened the scoring with a run-scoring single and McKenna Mathis (Mesa, WA/Connell) also tabbed a RBI single in the inning. The other two runs scored on wild pitches to stake WWU to the early 4-0 lead.

After the lengthy weather delay, the Saints climbed back into the game with a 4-run bottom of the 3rd inning to tie the game 4-4. Catcher Jackie Schmaeling highlighted the big inning with a 2-out, 3-run double to left field.

Junior shortstop Cylie Richards joined her twin Carlie with her first career home run with one out in the top of the 4th inning to give the Vikings a short-lived 5-4 lead. SMU retook the lead with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning and tacked on two more runs in the 5th to extend the lead to 8-5. First baseman Sabrina Hicks added a 2-run double in the bottom of the 6th to bring the game to the final score of 10-5.

Shearyna Labasan (Mililani, HI/Maryknoll) was saddled with the loss falling to 6-4 on the season, allowing a career-high 14 hits and tied a career single-game high with 10 runs allowed. Junior Sarah Morrow (Enumclaw, WA) was 2-for-4 with a run scored as the only WWU player to record a multi-hit game. The Vikings were out-hit 14-5 in the game, including 14-1 over the final 5 innings.

Lindsay Miller recorded the win in relief for Saint Martin's, allowing 3 hits and 1 run over the final 6.1 innings. Schmaeling was 2-for-4 with 3 RBI to lead the Saints at the plate.

Saint Martin's 10, Western Washington 5 (Apr 08, 2017 at Lacey, WA) (Game 2)----------------------------------------------------------------------Western Washington.. 400 100 0 -  5  5  3      (17-14, 6-6 GNAC)Saint Martin's...... 004 222 0 - 10 14  1      (15-11, 7-5 GNAC)----------------------------------------------------------------------Western Washington - Labasan and HughesSaint Martin's - O'Toole; Miller,L. (1) and SchmaelingWin-Miller,L. (2-2)  Loss-Labasan (6-4)  T-2:00  A-81HR WWU - Richards,Cy (1)Weather: 50s Cloudy

Game Notes: Emily Benson recorded her 50th career extra-base hit (2B in G#1), moving into a tie for 2nd place in the WWU career record books with Adrienne Moore (2002-05)...Kali Patterson's 2-run double in G#1 was her 154th career hit moving her into a tie for 10th place in the WWU career record books...Anna Kasner recorded 7 strikeouts in her start in G#1, giving her 130 on the season to move into 5th in single-season WWU history.