Box Score (Game 1)
Box Score (Game 2)
Box Score (Game 3)

NAMPA, Idaho (Apr. 3) -- After being stunned twice in the first two games of Saturday's rare softball tripleheader, the 19th-ranked Central Washington Wildcats turned a two-run seventh-inning lead into a 10-run blowout victory in salvaging the final game of the abbreviated three-game series with Northwest Nazarene University. CWU lost the first two games, 5-3 and 3-1, before winning the finale 14-4.

Central, which earned its first-ever National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division II national ranking this past week and was ranked fifth in the official NCAA Division II West Region poll, is now 19-10 overall and 14-5 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play. The Wildcats saw their lead in the GNAC standings slip to one game over Western Oregon, which won two of three games in its tripleheader at Western Washington. Northwest Nazarene is now 6-22 overall and 6-17 in the GNAC.

The Wildcats, the top-hitting team in the GNAC and ranked among the national leaders, started Saturday's tripleheader strong offensively with three runs in the first three innings against the Crusaders. They scored two runs in the first on a RBI single from junior Samantha Petrich (Chehalis/W.F. West HS) and a sacrifice fly from junior Kelsey Haupert (Olympia/Black Hills HS), and then added their third run in the third on Haupert's ninth home run of the season.

Central's offense went hitless over the next four innings, however, and the host Crusaders rallied against Wildcat ace Lauren Hadenfeld (Vancouver/Evergreen HS). NNU scored three times in the fourth to tie the game, highlighted by a two-run home run from Chelsey Anderson, and the Crusaders scored the eventual winning runs in the fifth after collecting three hits in the inning.

CWU senior Ashley Fix (Puyallup), who would finish the day with six hits in 10 at-bats, had the only multiple-hit game for the Wildcats in game one by going 2 for 3. Nicole Grummons, who earned the pitching win for Northwest Nazarene, also keyed the Crusaders' hitting attack with two hits in as many official at-bats.

In game two, Central managed just three hits over the first six innings against Anderson, and a two-run first inning by Northwest Nazarene put the Wildcats in an early hole. Despite just the three hits through six, CWU left two runners on base in both the third and fourth innings before finally scoring in the top of the seventh. Sophomore Molly Coppinger (Belfair/North Mason HS) started the seventh with a double, and advanced to third on senior Danielle Monson's (Marysville/Marysville-Pilchuck HS) infield single, and pinch-runner Kyleen Sweepe (North Bend/Mount Si HS) eventually scored on a throwing error to account for Central's lone run of game two. Consecutive walks to Petrich and Haupert had loaded the bases for the Wildcats with two out, but they were unable to extend the game.

Four different Central players had hits, while Northwest Nazarene managed eight hits against CWU sophomore pitcher Lindy Baxter (Lacey/River Ridge HS).

In the finale, the Wildcats tied a single-game school record for hits, pounding out 18 safeties. Monson, who had hits in all three games to extend her school- and conference-record hit streak to 28 games, had four hits in five trips, while Fix also established a career-high with four hits in the game.

Central again turned to Hadenfeld in game three, and she proceeded to strike out eight hitters while allowing just two earned runs in improving to 12-3 on the season. Hadenfeld was spotted early leads of 2-0 and 6-2 after one-half and 3 1/2 innings, respectively.

Fix plated the Wildcats' first two runs in the finale with a two-out, two-run single in the first inning, and added a RBI single in the third to cap Central's three-run frame. Petrich, who finished with a career-high five RBI, drove in two runs with a double in the third, another with a sacrifice fly in the fourth, and then delivered a two-run single in the seventh.

Central's eight-run seventh came thanks to seven hits and two costly NNU errors that made for all eight runs to be unearned. In addition to Petrich's two-run single in the inning, Fix had two hits in the inning (including a RBI infield single), and freshman Elena Carter (Olympia/Black Hills HS) provided a pinch-hit three-run home run for her first career round-tripper.

The Wildcats' 13 RBI in game three came from a total of four players. Petrich and Fix both had career-best RBI totals with five and four, respectively, while Carter drove in three in her only plate appearance. Sweepe also earned her first career RBI with a seventh-inning single.

Eight of Central's nine starters had at least one hit in the game. Three of Northwest Nazarene's seven hits in the series finale came from Haley Hevern.

Central Washington, which suffered its first weekend series loss in five GNAC series this weekend, will begin the second round of conference play next weekend in Lacey against Saint Martin's University.