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

BILLINGS, Mont. (May 2) -- The Central Washington University softball team set school records with 20 hits and six home runs in game one, and then equaled the school's single-season record for victories in game two as the Wildcats completed a four-game sweep of Montana State University Billings with 14-8 and 13-3 wins on Sunday at Cenex Stadium.

The Wildcats' lead in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings now sits at two games with four games remaining in the season. Central improved to 33-13 on the season and 28-8 in the GNAC, tying the school's wins record that it set last spring when CWU went 33-20. Montana State Billings is now 20-27 overall and 17-19 in conference play.

Central, which combined for 27 runs in Sunday's doubleheader and 45 in the four-game series, stormed out to a 7-0 lead through 3 1/2 innings in the opener and was in front 7-2 after five innings before each team scored six times in the sixth to make it a 13-8 score entering the final frame.

The Wildcats' early lead was keyed by a five-run third inning in which junior Samantha Petrich (Chehalis/W.F. West HS) belted a grand slam -- the first of three consecutive at-bats with a home run for the shortstop -- and was followed by junior Kelsey Haupert's (Olympia/Black Hills HS) first round-tripper of the day. That duo later went back-to-back to start the sixth inning -- an inning in which freshman Carrina Wagner (Tacoma/Spanaway Lake HS) hit a three-run homer -- as Central built a 13-2 lead.

Petrich upped her season home run total to 14 while tying the school's single-game record with seven runs batted in. She also became the first player in the nine-year history of the GNAC to hit three home runs in a single game. Haupert, meanwhile, broke the school and conference single-season home run record with her 15th and 16th of the year in the contest.

While home runs were plentiful, singles too were common for the Wildcats in the game. Senior Ashley Fix (Puyallup) went 4 for 4 with four singles and sophomore Michelle Torre (Kent/Liberty HS) had three singles. Petrich and Haupert had three-hit outings as Central surpassed its previous single-game record of 18 hits in a game -- a mark that it had reached four times including twice earlier this season.

In game two, the Wildcats used two monster innings -- a five-run third and a six-run fourth -- and Haupert blasted two more home runs to rout the Yellowjackets by a mercy-rule-ended 10-run count (13-3) in five innings.

Central's offense again flourished, totaling 17 hits including three each by senior Danielle Monson (Marysville/Marysville-Pilchuck HS) and sophomore Meghan Kopczynski (Ellensburg) and two apiece from Petrich, Haupert, Torre, and Wagner. Monson's three-hit contest enabled her to tie the GNAC single-season record for hits with 88, while she also tied a career-high with four runs batted in including her first double of the season.

The pitching duo of sophomore Lindy Baxter (Lacey/River Ridge HS) and senior Katriina Reime (Hoquiam) combined to shut down the Yellowjackets in the five-inning nightcap, not allowing an earned run as CWU was charged with four errors which led to three unearned runs for MSUB. Reime allowed just one hit in 1 2/3 innings of relief, while Baxter won her third straight decision to improve to 8-9 on the season.

The doubleheader sweep on Sunday pushed the Wildcats to a program-record 20 games over .500 and extended Central's win streak to nine games. CWU also inched its way closer to its first-ever softball conference championship and postseason berth, both of which it can attain by winning at least one game out of its four-game series at Western Oregon next weekend (May 7-8).