Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 LACEY, Wash (April. 17) – The Central Washington University Softball team split with Saint Martin's University Sunday afternoon taking three of the four game in the series and moved into first place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings.
 
The Wildcats (32-11, 16-8 GNAC) dropped game three 9-8 before rallying against the Saints (32-16, 15-9 GNAC) in game four to win 6-4 in extra innings.
 
Game 3: CWU – 8 SMU – 9
 
The Wildcats fell behind early in game three as the Saints plated an early run in the first inning off starting pitcher Kianna Wood.
 
In the third inning the Wildcats erupted for seven runs while sending 11 batters to the plate. Taylor Ferleman reached on a leadoff-single and later came around to score on a RBI-single by Celine Fowler. Senior Alexa Olague highlighted the big inning with a grand slam on the very first pitch she saw in the at-bat that plated Rachael Johnson, Fowler and Kaylin Campbell.
 
The Wildcats held the 7-1 advantage for a brief moment, as the Saints would answer with two runs in third inning, three runs in the fourth inning and two runs in the fifth inning.
 
Wood, who pitched three innings allowing four earned runs was relieved by Brielle Copodonna who finished the game tossing three innings allowing five earned runs.
 
The Wildcats knotted the game in the sixth inning but a Saint sacrifice fly in the sixth proved to be the advantage.
 
Game 4: CWU – 6 SMU – 4
 
Austin Wilkerson gave Kayla Smith an early 1-0 advantage when the senior backstop hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the first inning allowing Fowler to score.
 
Saint's shortstop Alyssa Slate would tie the game at 1-1 with double to center field. The Wildcats chased home two runs in the third inning when Andrea Hamada hit a sacrifice fly to centerfield scoring Fowler and a fielding error on the same play allowed Campbell to cross the plate.
 
Smith went five strong innings allowing just five hits and two earned runs.
 
The Wildcats would extend their lead to 4-1 when Copodonna singled home Remy Bradley. Slate belted a homerun in the fifth inning to cut Central's lead to 4-2 and in the sixth inning she would double to right field to close the gap to 4-3. In the bottom of the seventh innings the Saints tied to game off Wood who relieved Smith.
 
Copodonna came on to pitch in the eighth and ninth innings limiting the Saints to just one hit.
 
Olague helped give Copodonna her 10^th win of the season when she hit her second homerun of the afternoon. The go-ahead homerun was somewhat aided in its flight as the ball ricocheted of a Saints' fielder's glove to escape the park. Copodonna added an insurance run two batters later with and RBI-double to seal the game.
 
The Wildcats will continue their march for the GNAC regular season title when the team travels north to Western Washington University for a pair of games before traveling to Simon Fraser University for two games.