NAMPA, Idaho -- The Central Washington University softball team lost two games on the same day for just the second time all season, falling by a score of 3-7 in each of its contests with Northwest Nazarene Saturday afternoon at Halle Field.
 
With the losses, Central falls to 25-12 on the season and 13-7 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.  Northwest Nazarene improves to 22-19, and is now tied with CWU at 13-7 in the GNAC.
 
In game one, NNU broke a scoreless tie in the third inning scoring on a triple in the inning, and followed that up with a six run fourth to take a commanding 7-0 lead.
 
The Wildcats' offense showed some life in the fifth and six innings, totaling three runs on a RBI double by Bethany Balucan and a two-run homerun by Alycia Bannan.
 
Kylie Sweeney pitched two perfect innings in relief of Lexie Strasser who picked up the loss giving up seven runs (one earned) over four innings of work.
 
In the nightcap, the Nighthawks jumped out to another big lead, scoring in each of the first four innings, including twice in the first to take a 5-0 edge.
 
Central scored once in the fifth on a RBI single by Rachael Johnson, and twice in the sixth inning on run scoring singles by Taelor Griffin and Balucan, cutting the NNU lead to 5-3.
 
The Knighthawks answered with two runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth to take the final 7-3 advantage.
 
Up next, the Wildcats will come back to the friendly confines of Frederick Field to take on Simon Fraser and Western Washington in pair of two-game series on Saturday, Apr. 21 and Sunday, Apr. 22, respectively.