Portland, Ore. (FEB. 24) - One timely hit from Corban University cost the Central Washington University softball team their final game at the Cavalier Classic, as the Warriors downed the Wildcats 4-2 on Sunday.
The game was tied at 0 through the first five innings of the contest between the Wildcats (7-4) and the Warriors (5-4). In the tip of the sixth, the Warriors loaded the bases for Jessie Isham. Isham swatted the first pitch she saw, sending it over the left field fence for a grand slam.
"Lexie pitched her best game of the year," CWU head coach Mike Larabee said. "She made one mistake and they were able to hit it out. Give her credit. Good hitters are able to hit mistakes and that's what she did."
The Wildcats gained two runs back in the bottom half of the inning after allowing the four run home run. Kayla Ellis got the Wildcats on the board with a single through the left side. Sydney Brown hustled home to score the run. Later, Savannah Egbert grounded into a fielders choice, bringing Bethany Balucan to the plate. The Wildcats entered the final inning trailing 4-2.
In the top of the seventh inning, Lexie Strasser would take on Isham with the basses loaded again. This time, Strasser was able to force Isham to fly out to center, leaving the bases loaded. The Wildcats were unable to answer in the bottom of the inning.
The Wildcats threatened to score throughout the early innings, but were unable to cash in on runners in scoring position. Egbert led off the bottom of the first with a double. Katie Kastning followed by doing the same. Egbert was only able to advanced to third on the play. Egbert and Kastning would be stranded on base in the inning.
Ellis and Kastning were at the corners in the second inning, but again the Wildcats were unable to plate a run. The next inning, Julia Rueble smashed a double to left field, and would advance to third on a single from Sydney Brown. Again, no luck for the Wildcats. Overall, the Wildcats left nine runners on base.
"We just couldn't get that timely hit today," Larabee said. "We had a lot of quality at bats and couldn't get the timely hit. Defense was okay, but it really boiled down to one timely hit for them."
Strasser went the full seven innings in the circle for the Wildcats. She faced 32 batters, striking out six while waking three. She used the fly ball to her advantage, getting ten batters to fly out. For the game, Strasser threw 111 pitches, 72 of them were for strikes. Strasser gave up just one extra base hit. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, it was the hit that lifted Corban over them.
The Wildcats open Great Northwest Athletic Conference play next weekend. They're scheduled to host Northwest Nazarene in two weeks. They'll play two games on March 8, and two more on March 9. Both days are scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m.
