Box Score

ELLENSBURG (Apr. 22) -- Six players had multiple-hit games, helping the Central Washington University softball team tie a single-game school record with 18 hits as the Wildcats defeated Northwest Nazarene University, 13-6, on Thursday afternoon at Gary & Bobbi Frederick Field.

The Wildcats closed to within one-half game of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference lead with the victory in a make-up game from a weather-canceled contest earlier this month in Nampa, Idaho. Central is now 25-13 overall and 20-8 in GNAC play, while NNU is 9-30 overall and 8-24 in the GNAC.

Central, batting as the visiting team, got off to a fast start with three unearned runs in the top of the first inning. Senior Danielle Monson (Marysville/Marysville-Pilchuck HS), who tied a career-high with four hits and extended her hitting streak to 37 games, led off with a single. A two-out infield error prolonged the inning and allowed the game's first run to score, and senior Ashley Fix (Puyallup) then followed by lofting a fly ball over the center field fence for a two-run home run -- the first round-tripper in her last 109 at-bats and the second of her career.

The Wildcats scored at least once in each of the first four innings against starting pitcher Nicole Grummons (5-14). Their second-inning tally came on a RBI bloop single from Monson, and their third-inning runs were scored on consecutive run-scoring hits by sophomores Meghan Kopczynski (Ellensburg) and Jennifer Schwartz (Spokane/Shadle Park HS). Central had four hits in an inning three times on Thursday -- in the third, fourth, and seventh frames.

After CWU took a 6-1 lead in the third, Northwest Nazarene scored twice on a Sarah Varady home run to center field to cut the Wildcats' margin to three. They would get those runs back, plus one, in the top of the fourth after RBI hits by juniors Samantha Petrich (Chehalis/W.F. West HS) and Kelsey Haupert (Olympia/Black Hills HS) and a fielder's choice by Schwartz.

Junior pitcher Lauren Hadenfeld (Vancouver/Evergreen HS) pitched the first five innings of Thursday's contest, striking out six and scattering five hits but walking three hitters. She improved to 15-4 on the season, while senior Katriina Reime (Hoquiam) pitched the final two innings and allowed three runs (two earned).

After a feverish start, the Wildcat hitting attack was slowed in the middle innings by relief pitcher Cara Duckworth, who held Central off the scoreboard in both the fifth and sixth frames on just two hits combined. CWU did tack on four insurance runs against Duckworth in the seventh (of which two were earned), with Petrich (one), Haupert (two), and Kopczynski (one) adding to their season RBI totals in their final at-bats.

Monson's four hits lifted her season average to .522 and was the 25th multi-hit of the season for the senior center fielder. Petrich and Kopczynski added three hits apiece, including the first three-hit game of Kopczynski's career. Haupert, Fix, and Schwartz had two hits each as Central reached the 18-hit plateau for the second time this season and the fourth time in the program's 18-year history.

Northwest Nazarene, which finished with seven hits but committed five errors, was led by Arielle Chao's three hits and two safeties from Varady.

The two teams will continue their five-game series with a doubleheader on Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.