ELLENSBURG, (Mar. 17) – The Central Washington University softball team is traveling to Napa, Idaho for a four game series against Northwest Nazarene this Friday and Saturday.
 
The Wildcats (14-5) are looking to improve their 2-4 record within the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
 
The Crusaders are fourth in the conference with a 3-3 mark, and an overall record of 9-10.  The Crusaders feature one the conferences most impressive freshman in Cassidy Fifield who is hitting .348 on the season and is a perfect 17 for 17 in stolen base attempts, leading the conference in the category.
 
Northwest Nazarene is seventh in the conference in batting average (.282), and fifth in team earned run average (3.88) while the Wildcats rank third and second in the respective categories with a batting average of .334 and an ERA of 2.81.
 
Freshman Rachael Johnson and sophomore Celine Fowler saw their batting averages rise in the Wildcats last six contests as the duo leads CWU with batting averages of .412 ad .411.  In the Wildcats last home stand, Fowler raised her batting average 51-points, going 8 for 11 and scoring four runs.  Fowler will take a six-game hitting streak into the weekend contests.
 
The most impressive hitting streak for the Wildcats belongs to senior catcher Austin Wilkerson who is riding a 21-game streak dating back to last season.  Her 21-game hit streak is the longest since 2010.  Wilkerson is batting .397 on the season and leads the team with five homeruns and 20 RBI.
 
After the Wildcats return home, they will host Western Washington University on Mar. 22 at 1 p.m. for two games that were originally schedules to be played on Mar. 13, but were canceled due to the weather.