LACEY, Wash. – The Central Washington University softball team needed two wins Sunday to capture its third-straight Great Northwest Athletic Conference Regular Season Championship, and did exactly that by picking up a 5-4 and 5-3 victories over Saint Martin's University in the regular season finales.
 
The Wildcats finish the regular season 31-14 with a 19-9 record within the GNAC.  Saint Martin's finished 23-21, 13-14 in the GNAC, and with the final loss was eliminated from a GNAC Tournament berth. 
 
The Wildcats share the 2018 regular season title with Northwest Nazarene who earns the top seed in the GNAC Tournament while the Wildcats take the second-seed and will pay Simon Fraser in the opening round.  The first game is slated to start at 4:30, this Thursday (May 3).  Tickets for the 2018 GNAC Championships can be purchased here.
 
Central Washington becomes only the second GNAC school to ever win three-straight regular season titles, and the only program amongst current member institutions.  Humboldt State won five-straight from 2002-2006.
 
Alycia Bannan played the hero in game one with a pinch-hit three-run homerun that gave the Wildcats the final 5-4 lead.  Savannah Egbert added a RBI in the frame as the Wildcats put up four runs in the frame.  Central scored its first run in the third inning when Egbert led off with a triple and Kastning drove her in two batters later on her second hit of the game.
 
Lexie Strasser earned her 18 win of the season (18-8) going the distance, using 82 pitches with a pair of strikeouts.
 
The Wildcats jumped all over the Saints in game two, scoring once in the first innings, three times in the second and once more in the third.
 
Kastning drove in her second run of the day in the first, plating Rachael Johnson who reached on an infield single.  The Wildcats opened the second inning with three consecutive hits, the last a double by Bethany Balucan that scored Jacie McDaniels from second and moved Sydney Brown to third base.  Senior Celine Fowler played Brown on a sac fly, and Balucan came around to score on a wild pitch.
 
The Wildcats final run of the contest again came off the bat of Balucan on an infield single allowing Julia Reuble to score from third.
 
Taylor Williams went 5.1 innings, giving up four hits to earn her fifth victory of the season (5-1).  She forced 10 ground outs and collected three strikeouts on the day.
 
The Wildcats will head to Portland, Ore. for the GNAC Championships in hopes of making a return to the NCAA Division II West Regional Tournament.