BILLINGS, Mont. (Apr. 14) – The Central Washington University softball team (25-13, 16-4) split games three and four of their series against Montana State University Billings (11-28, 4-17). The Wildcats took game one by score of 11-5 and then dropped game two by score of 5-1.

In game one between the Wildcats and Yellowjackets, Katie Kastning got the Wildcats on the board in the first inning. Kastning hit a solo home run, her second of the season. With two outs in the inning, the Wildcats loaded the bases for Sydney Brown. Brown was able to work a walk, giving the Wildcats a 2-0 lead. The bases remained loaded for Gracee Dwyer. Dwyer smoked a single that drove in two for the Wildcats. They owned a 4-0 lead before the Yellowjackets swung their bats. 

Game one went into a lengthy delay after the first inning. When the game resumed, Maddy Zerr and Julia Reuble swatted back-to-back solo home runs. In the fourth inning, Zerr homered again. This time it was a two-run shot that extended the Wildcats lead to 8-1 in the fourth inning. Zerr finished the game 4-for-5 with two home runs, three runs batted in and two runs scored. Kastning and Reuble also had four-hit games with each hitting a home run of their own. As a team, the Wildcats banged out 21 hits on their way to an 11-5 win. 

"You know, we sung the bats well in game one," CWU Head Coach Mike Larabee said.  "We were able to do a few things on offense, but we we struggled in game two.We managed 20 or so hits on the day, but we could have used a couple more when it mattered in game two."

Lexie Strasser (11-8) got the start in the circle. She had to work around some trouble, as she allowed five earned runs in five innings of work. Strasser was able to strike out four hitters. Taylor Williams pitched the final two innings of the contest, throwing 25 pitches in her outing. 

Game two started out quietly and scoreless through two and a half innings. The Yellow Jackets plated three runs in the third inning. MSUB then scored two more runs in the sixth inning to make their lead five runs.

It wasn't until the seventh inning that the Wildcats were able to get on the board. Rachel Johnson started off the inning with a leadoff double down the left field line. Savannah Egbert followed that double with a single to left field allowing Johnson to get to third. 

Kayla Smith then hit into a fielder's choice allowing Johnson to score from third. That was the only run that the Wildcat's could get across in the game. Even though Central out hit the Yellow Jackets, the Wildcats weren't able to capitalize when they had runners in scoring position. 

Central will be back in action next week for a four-game series against Saint Martin's University.