Box Score (Game 1)
Box Score (Game 2)
ELLENSBURG (Apr. 18) -- The Central Washington University offense rattled the bats for 12 hits in five innings in game one, but manages just three hits over seven innings of game two as the Wildcat softball team split its Sunday doubleheader with visiting Western Washington University. After winning the opener 9-1 in five innings, Central fell 4-1 in the series finale at Gary & Bobbi Frederick Field.
The Wildcats are now 24-13 overall and 19-8 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, but Sunday's split leaves CWU in second place in the GNAC, one game behind Western Oregon, who won twice on Sunday. Western Washington maintains its .500 overall record (19-19) and is 15-12 in the GNAC.
After a slow start in the opener, Central scored its nine runs in bunches over three innings. The Wildcats picked up four unearned runs in the third inning after senior Danielle Monson (Marysville/Marysville-Pilchuck HS) reached on an error to start the frame. With two out and the bases loaded, sophomore Meghan Kopczynski (Ellensburg) doubled down the right-field line to score a pair, and sophomore Michelle Torre (Kent/Liberty HS) then followed with a two-run double of her own down the left-field line to give Central a 4-0 lead.
Western scored its lone run of the game in the top of the fourth on a sacrifice fly, but Central responded by pushing the lead to 6-1 in the bottom of the inning as juniors Samantha Petrich (Chehalis/W.F. West HS) and Kelsey Haupert (Olympia/Black Hills HS) delivered back-to-back RBI hits -- Petrich's a triple into the right-field corner and Haupert's a single to left field.
The Wildcats tacked on three runs and ended the game on the eight-run mercy-rule in the fifth inning with three singles, including RBI hits from Petrich and Keilani Cruz (Tacoma/Curtis HS), and three wild pitches. The game's final run came across on the second wild pitch by reliever Erika Hendron.
All but two of Central's starters in the lineup had at least one hit, although Torre, who replaced an injured Molly Coppinger (Belfair/North Mason HS) to start the third inning, had two hits in as many at-bats off the bench. Petrich, who broke the school's single-season runs scored record with a pair of tallies in Sunday's opener, had three hits in the game, while Haupert reached base in all four plate appearances with a single, hit by pitch, and two walks.
Junior pitcher Lauren Hadenfeld (Vancouver/Evergreen HS) earned her 14th win against four losses after allowing just four hits and striking out three in her 69-pitch, five-inning complete game.
In the series finale, Central drew first blood with an unearned run in the first inning, as Monson scored on a wild pitch after a two-out infield error had extended the inning for the Wildcats. After Monson's leadoff single, which extended her hitting streak to 36 games, CWU managed just two more hits the rest of the way against Erika Quint (9-6), who defeated Central for the second straight day and induced 14 fly ball outs.
Western Washington took the lead in the fourth inning on Meghan Flem's three-run home run to center field, and the Vikings scored an insurance run in the fifth on Michelle Wrigley's RBI single.
Monson, whose game-two hit was her 68th and enabled her to break the CWU single-season record for hits, continues to climb the NCAA record books for longest hitting streak. Her 36-game run is the third-longest in Division II history and the sixth-highest total for all divisions in NCAA history. Torre and sophomore Jennifer Schwartz (Spokane/Shadle Park HS) had Central's other hits in game two.
Central Washington will play a five-game series against Northwest Nazarene University beginning this Thursday (Apr. 22) with a single game at 4 p.m. in a make-up contest from a cancellation earlier this month. The two teams will then play doubleheaders on Friday (Apr. 23) at 1 p.m. and Saturday (Apr. 24) at noon in the final home games of the 2010 season for CWU.
