Box Score

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (Feb. 13) -- Senior Kelsey Haupert (Olympia/Black Hills HS) hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth inning, and teammate Lauren Hadenfeld (Vancouver/Evergreen HS) struck out 11 as the 25th-ranked Central Washington University softball team defeated 14th-ranked Grand Canyon University, 3-2, on Sunday afternoon at the MSUB Desert Stinger.

The Wildcats finished the tournament with a 2-3 record, earning one-run wins over GCU and Humboldt State. Grand Canyon went 3-2 for the tournament and is now 6-5 overall.

Haupert's blast, her third of the season and the 21st of her two-year CWU career, came after senior Samantha Petrich (Chehalis/W.F. West HS) had led off the fifth with a single. The hits were significant as they not only gave Central Washington a 3-1 lead at the time, but they also accounted for half of the Wildcats' safeties in the seven-inning game.

CWU scored first when senior Taylor Trautmann (Renton/John F. Kennedy HS) came home from third base after Petrich was caught in a rundown between first and second base. Grand Canyon tied the game in the third after Claire Zampini hit a two-out double and was driven home by Teddy Barry on a single two batters later.

Hadenfeld, who was the pitcher of record in four of Central's five games for the weekend (2-2), scattered eight hits but mowed down a potent Antelope lineup by fanning a season-high 11 while walking just one hitter.

In addition to the hits by Petrich and Haupert, junior Natasha Wood (Graham/Graham-Kapowsin HS) and sophomore Kyleen Sweepe (North Bend/Mount Si HS) each had one hit. Wood's hit was a double, accounting for her first extra-base hit of the season.

Grand Canyon, which, like CWU, qualified for the NCAA Division II West Region tournament last season, was led by the three-hit outing of Barry and a two-hit game from Zampini. Starting pitcher Ivy Campas (3-3) took the loss, walking six Wildcats in four innings on the day.

Central Washington will now have nearly two weeks off from games, not playing again until it opens defense of its Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship on Feb. 26 against Simon Fraser University.