Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
HTML Box Scores: Game 1 / Game 2

BELLINGHAM (Mar. 9) -- Sophomore Heidy Wells (Tacoma/Stadium HS) threw a four-hit shutout, and junior Jill McDaniels (Walla Walla) hit a three-run home run to lead the Central Washington University softball team to a 5-0 win in the second game of its Great Northwest Athletic Conference doubleheader at Western Washington University on Saturday. The Wildcats dropped the opening game, 4-2.

CWU finished its four-game weekend road trip with a 1-3 record, losing twice at Simon Fraser University on Friday, and the Wildcats are now 1-8 overall on the season. Western Washington is now 12-8 overall and 4-2 in GNAC play.

GAME ONE: Western Washington 4, CWU 2
Freshman Michaela Hazlett (Purcell, Okla.) was 3 for 3, and senior Cassi Ellis (East Wenatchee/Eastmont HS) hit a two-run home run in the Wildcats' two-run loss.

Western Washington scored the game's first two runs with tallies in the second and fourth innings. CWU then tied the score in the top of the fifth on Ellis' second home run of the season, but the host Vikings then countered by scoring two runs in the bottom of the inning to win the game.

Hazlett and Ellis (2 for 3) combined for five of the Wildcats' eight hits against Jenna DeRosier. CWU junior pitcher Maria Gau (Woodinville) allowed just four hits and only three earned runs while striking out eight, but suffered her fourth loss in as many decisions.

Freshman Alexie Levin drove in the game-winning runs for WWU with her fifth-inning single.

GAME TWO: CWU 5, Western Washington 0
Wells scattered four singles over seven innings and struck out four with just two walks, while McDaniels' second-inning homer ignited a four-run frame as the Wildcats earned the doubleheader split.

WWU collected singles in the third (two), fourth, and fifth innings, but Wells escaped without allowing a run. Wells, who retired the final nine hitters she faced, dodged a third-inning threat in which the Vikings left the bases loaded.

In addition to McDaniels' second home run of the season, Hazlett and sophomore Shelby Yasuda (Woodinville) drove in the Wildcats' other two runs with groundouts. Hazlett's RBI out capped the second-inning scoring, while Yasuda plated McDaniels with an unearned run in the fourth.

Yasuda was the lone Wildcat with more than one hit in the nightcap, going 2 for 4, while Camille Depew accounted for two of Western Washington's four hits.

CWU returns home for a non-conference doubleheader on Tuesday (Mar. 12) against Northwest University. The twinbill between the Wildcats and Eagles, which will be the first-ever softball meetings between the two schools, is set for 1 p.m. at Gary & Bobbi Frederick Field.