NAMPA, Idaho – Paris Dellamaggiore ripped a pinch-hit, championship-winning single into center field on Saturday afternoon at Halle Field, putting the finishing touch on Western Washington's second consecutive Great Northwest Athletic Conference Softball Championships title with an 8-7 win over Simon Fraser.

 

The sophomore from Clovis, Calif., was summoned from the bench with one out and the bases loaded and on the eighth pitch of her at-bat prompted a celebration from the Vikings' dugout.

 

WWU swept the competition at the GNAC Championships for the second straight season, after winning all three games en route to the 2024 crown while hosting the tournament for the first time at Viking Field. The win on Saturday gave WWU its GNAC record fourth conference tournament title, and the Vikings joined NNU as the second team in conference history to win consecutive GNAC Championships.

 

The Vikings improved to 40-10 on the season with their 13th consecutive victory and earned the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA West Region Championships. WWU is the defending NCAA Division II national runner-up, becoming the first program in GNAC history to reach the World Series in a historic 2024 campaign.

 

Simon Fraser, making its first GNAC Championships appearance since 2018, finished its season with a record of 24-25 and took third in the GNAC regular-season standings.

 

Trailing 5-0 after four innings of play, the Red Leafs put together a spirited comeback effort and scored seven runs in the final three innings to take a 7-6 lead. RBI-singles by Kristen Davyduke and Janique Balcaen and an error by the Vikings brought three runs across in the top of the fifth. Balcaen, Friday's hero with a walk-off single to send SFU to the championship game, delivered again with a two-run double in the top of the seventh to cut the deficit to one at 6-5.

 

With the Red Leafs down to their final out, catcher Lizzy Sugrive stunned WWU with a two-run home run to left field that not only kept her team alive but gave SFU its first lead of the game.

 

All-tournament selection Emma Andrewjeski-Ramirez promptly led off the bottom of the seventh with a double, and an ensuing error by the Red Leafs brought the tying run around to score. After a walk drawn by Nyree Johnson and a base hit by GNAC Championships MVP McKenna Crum, WWU head coach Sheryl Gilmore turned to Dellamaggiore to pinch hit. She won the battle against SFU ace Monica Bourque, sending the Vikings to the tournament title.

 

The Vikings got started on their early lead on an RBI-single by Crum in the second, and added two more runs on an error in the bottom of the third. In the fourth, it was an RBI-double by Kanilehua Pitoy and an RBI-squeeze bunt by Hailey Rath to up the spread to 5-0.

 

Bourque, who earned all-tournament honors after three stellar outings over the first two days to pitch her team to the championship, allowed eight runs – three earned – on 11 hits with four strikeouts and four walks in the title game. Balcaen finished 4-for-4 with three RBIs and Davyduke was 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored to lead SFU.

 

WWU sophomore Alli Kimball earned her second win of the tournament, allowing one unearned run on six hits with one strikeout and no walks across five strong innings of work. Crum capped her MVP performance by going 3-for-4 and stealing a base in the title game, while Andrewjeski-Ramirez and Johnson were each 2-for-3.

 

 

Here is the inaugural GNAC Softball Championships All-Tournament Team with senior right fielder McKenna Crum selected as the GNAC Tournament MVP.

 

 

The Vikings (40-10) will find out their seed in the NCAA Softball Championships during Monday's Selection Show at 7 am PT/10 am ET. Links to follow the live stats and webcast at the NCAA Regional Tournament will be made available at wwuvikings.com/Live. The complete 2025 schedule can be viewed online at wwuvikings.com/Team33 with links to season statistics, photo galleries and program history.

 

The 2025 NCAA Div. II Softball Selection Show will air Monday, May 5 at 7 am PT with a link available on the Softball Page at NCAA.com. The West Region will feature two host sites with a pair of four-team sub-regionals, with the winners meeting in a Super Regional (best of 3) to determine who advances to the DII College World Series May 22-28 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

 

The four-team, double-elimination tournament was held at Halle Field on the campus of Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho. Here is a look at the tournament results with the winner of the double-elimination tournament receiving the GNAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships West Regional. WWU became the first team in conference history to win back-to-back GNAC Softball Tournament titles, also winning on its home field in 2024.

 

 

Thursday, May 1

Game 1: No. 2 Saint Martin's 2, No. 3 Simon Fraser 1

Game 2: No. 1 Western Washington 8, No. 4 Montana State Billings 2

 

Friday, May 2

Game 3: No. 1 Western Washington 10, No. 2 Saint Martin's 6

Game 4: No. 3 Simon Fraser 9, No. 4 Montana State Billings 0 – 5 inn. (MSUB eliminated)

Game 5: No. 3 Simon Fraser 7, No. 2 Saint Martin's 6 (SFU eliminated)

 

Saturday, May 4

Game 6: No. 1 Western Washington 8, No. 3 Simon Fraser 7 (WWU wins GNAC Championships)

WWU has advanced to play in eight of the 12 GNAC Championship tournaments, winning titles 2017, 2021 and back-to-back seasons in 2024 and 2025. The Vikings are 16-8 all-time in GNAC Championships play following Saturday's 8-7 win over Simon Fraser, extending their winning streak in the conference tournament to six straight.

 

Here is a look at the Vikings record breakdown for the 2025 season:

 

 

WWU extended its winning streak to 13 consecutive games with Saturday's 8-7 victory over Simon Fraser, tying for the 2nd-longest winning streak in program history. It is the second double-digit winning streak this season. The Vikings set the club record twice last season with winning streaks of 13 games (in February) and 17 games (in March/April). Here is a look at the longest winning streaks in the 33 years of WWU Softball:

 

 

The WWU softball program is in its 33rd season in 2025 while coming off a historic 52-12 season in 2024. The Vikings won the 2025 GNAC regular-season title with a 21-3 league record and have won back-to-back GNAC Tournament titles in 2024 and 2025. WWU advanced to the NCAA Division II Championships for the sixth time in program history in 2024, playing on its home field in the NCAA postseason for the first time. WWU won its first West Regional title defeating Cal State San Marcos in the sub-regional and Cal State Dominguez Hills in the Super Regional. The historic season ended playing in the national championship series as part of the NCAA Division II Spring Sports Festival in Longwood, Florida. WWU has posted a winning record 21 times during the 32-year history of the program, which won the 1998 NAIA National Championship in only its sixth season to record the school's first ever team national title.