Box Score ELLENSBURG, Wash. (May 9) -- The Central Washington University softball team lost its first game of the NCAA Division II West Regional Tournament 8-6 to Dixie State University Friday afternoon in St. George, UTAH.
 
The Wildcats held two leads in the contest, but each time the Red Storm answered back and regained the lead.
 
"I think we played with a lot of heart and fire," Head Coach Mallory Holtman-Fletcher said. " We were aggressive and stuck to our game plan.  We just needed to find a way to shut them down defensively."
 
Central got on the board first scoring one run in the opening inning on a RBI single by Kailyn Campbell (Duvall, WA, Cedarcrest) that scored Sammy Morris (Bothell, WA, Bothell). Dixie State answered back by scoring twice in the bottom half of the first inning on a two-run homerun to take a 2-1 lead.
 
The CWU offense quickly responded by scoring a single run on a RBI base hit by Maikala Galusha (Battle Ground, WA, Battle Ground) scoring Jordan Zurfluh (Adna, WA, Adna). 
 
After starting pitcher Maria Gau (Woodinville, WA, Woodinville) held the DSU offense scoreless in the second inning, the Wildcat offense erupted to score three runs in the third highlighted by a double by Andrea Hamada (Walla Walla, WA, Walla Walla) that scored two base runners.
 
Again, Dixie State rebounded by scoring four more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to regain the lead at 6-5.
 
Central Washington tied the game up at 6-6 in the sixth inning with Campbell driving in her second run of the game on a double to left field.  Continuing with the theme of the game, DSU answered right back hitting another two-run homerun in the bottom of the sixth to gain the final 8-6 lead.
 
The Wildcats outhit the Red Storm 14-11, but it was the big homeruns that made the difference in the contest..
 
Central Washington enters the losers bracket of the tournament and plays Humboldt State tomorrow at 12:30pm in a loser out contest.
 
"We are going move on to Humboldt now and forget this game," Holtman-Fletcher said. "We look forward to seeing Dixie State again in this tournament."