Box Score (Game 1)
Box Score (Game 2)
MONMOUTH, Ore. (Mar. 20) -- Senior Keilani Cruz (Tacoma/Curtis HS) homered three times, including twice in game two, as the Central Washington University softball team swept host Western Oregon, 6-2 and 11-10, on Sunday. The second game lasted 10 innings.
With Sunday's wins, the Wildcats moved back over the .500 mark to 7-6 overall and are 5-3 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play. Western Oregon fell to 9-13 overall and 6-10 in the GNAC.
Central, which managed just eight hits combined in 14 innings of Saturday's doubleheader loss to the Wolves (4-2 and 7-0), rattled the bats for 27 hits in 17 combined innings on Sunday. Four of those hits were longballs, as junior Liz Jusko (Snohomish) joined Cruz in the home run fun with a two-run blast in the seventh inning of the second game.
In Sunday's opener, CWU scored first on a Cruz home run in the top of the first inning and then tacked on five more runs in the sixth inning for a 6-0 lead. In the sixth, which proved to be the difference in the contest, senior Kelsey Haupert (Olympia/Black Hills HS) and sophomore Carrina Wagner (Tacoma/Spanaway Lake HS) each had run-scoring hits before junior Kristina Sherriff (Marysville/Marysville-Pilchuck HS) delivered the biggest hit of the game -- a bases-clearing triple -- that doubled the Wildcats' advantage from three runs to six.
Meanwhile, senior Lauren Hadenfeld (Vancouver/Evergreen HS) had a masterful pitching performance. The reigning GNAC Pitcher of the Year took a two-hit shutout into the bottom of the sixth inning, when Andrea Bailey ruined the shutout with a solo home run to right field. Kendra George added a solo blast of her own in the seventh for WOU to complete the scoring.
Cruz and Haupert each went 3 for 4 in game one, and each of the top six hitters in the Wildcat lineup scored one run each.
Game two appeared to be in the Wildcats' full control, as Central took a 10-4 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning, but six consecutive two-out, bases-loaded walks to Western Oregon hitters enabled the Wolves to tie the game at 10-10 and force extra innings.
In the 10th inning, with the international tie-breaker rule in effect, CWU took advantage of some wildness from the WOU pitching staff as, after a sacrifice bunt advanced senior Taylor Trautmann (Renton/John F. Kennedy HS) to third base and an intentional walk put runners on the corners, a wild pitch allowed Trautmann to score from third with the winning run.
Central built its early lead with seven runs in the fourth through sixth innings. Cruz again opened the scoring with a solo home run in the first inning, a run that Western Oregon matched with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second. CWU took the lead in the fourth on a two-run double by Sherriff, and then used three RBI doubles in the fifth by Haupert, Wagner, and Jusko to extend the lead to 6-2 at that point. WOU, which had scored once in the fourth on a home run by Jessica Hallmark, added single tallies in the fifth and sixth innings.
The Wildcats scored twice in the sixth on Cruz's final round-tripper of the day, and then tacked on two more runs in the seventh on Jusko's blast.
Central Washington finished with an 18-10 edge in hits in the series finale, led by a four-hit outing from Jusko (including three extra-base hits) and three hits each from junior Molly Coppinger (Belfair/North Mason HS) and sophomore Elena Carter (Olympia/Black Hills HS). Cruz and Jusko each drove in three runs for the game.
Freshman Maria Gau (Woodinville), who started the game and then left and re-entered, picked up the victory to even her season record at 2-2. She and the Wildcat pitching staff survived 15 walks.
Central will play two more road games before making its 2011 debut at Gary & Bobbi Frederick Field next weekend against conference leader Western Washington in a four-game series (Mar. 26-27). The Wildcats visit GNAC upstart Northwest Nazarene (8-9, 7-5 GNAC) for a doubleheader on Wednesday (Mar. 23).
