Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 ELLENSBURG, WA (Mar. 8) -- The Central Washington University rallied late in the second game of its doubleheader versus Simon Fraser University, winning the contest 7-5 to earn a sweep of the Clan as the Wildcats won the opener 9-1 in five innings behind a strong pitching performance by seniorMaria Gau.

These were the conference openers for the Wildcats who improve to 9-4 on the season on 2-0 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play.  Simon Fraser remains winless on the season at 0-13 and 0-4 in the GNAC.

Game One:
MARIA GAU handled the Simon Fraser offense earning her fifth win of the season throwing all five innings of the contest allowing six hits while striking out five batters.

Senior second baseman Jill McDaniels continued her hot hitting going 3-for-4 with two RBI including a walkoff run scoring double in the bottom of the fifth inning.  Sophomore Remy Bradley gave McDaniels plenty of opportunities to drive in runs going 2-for-3 and scoring three runs in the contest.

Central Washington got going early scoring two runs in the first on a RBI single by Austin Wilkerson, followed by Bradley scoring from third base when the Clan tried throwing out Wilkerson as she stole second base.

CWU piled on four more runs in the second inning on a RBI double by Alexa Olague and run scoring singles by McDaniels and Kailyn Campbell to take a commanding 6-0 after two innings. The Wildcats scored runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings to end with the final 9-1 advantage.

Simon Fraser scored its solo run in the third inning on a run scoring double by Danielle Raison who accounted for two of the Clan's six safeties in the game.

Game Two:
The Wildcats dug themselves into a hole in game two with the Clan building a 3-0, scoring all three runs in the top half of the second inning.  CWU remained scoreless until the bottom of the fourth inning where they scored its first run on a RBI groundout by Sammy Morris.

After SFU scored twice more in the fifth inning to take a 5-1 lead, CWU answered right back by scoring three runs of its own in the bottom half of the inning.  The Wildcats took advantage of a SFU error and Maikala Galusha, Olague, and Kiana Wood all ended up driving in runs in the inning as the Wildcats cut the deficit to just 5-4 after five innings.

The very next inning the Wildcats added three more runs, the biggest on a timely double by Galusha with two outs that scored the tying run.  The very next play, CWU took advantage of a fielding error by the Clan that led to two runners crossing the place to give the Wildcats the final 7-5 lead.

Wood started the game on the mound for CWU and struggled early, but settled down late in the ball game to pick up fourth win of the season (4-2).  She threw all seven innings surrendering 10 hits and five runs – three earned – and recorded one strikeout with no walks.     

The Wildcats will finish up this weekend home stand with a doubleheader tomorrow versus Western Washington University starting at Noon.