NAMPA, Idaho - Pushing the defending conference champions to extra innings in the opener, the Northwest Nazarene University softball team fell twice to Western Washington University, 5-2 in 9 innings and 18-9 on Thursday afternoon in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference doubleheader at Halle Field on the NNU campus.

The Vikings move to 14-5 overall and 4-0 in GNAC play with the pair of wins while the Crusaders fall to 0-21 overall and 0-6 in conference action.

"I was proud of our effort today," commented NNU head coach Julie Coert.  "We battled into extra innings and had our chances in game one and I thought we showed some great spark in the second game, coming back so hard in the fifth when we were down."

In the opener, the Vikings scored single runs in the third and fifth to take a 2-0 lead into the seventh.  Vanessa Shaw led off the bottom half of the inning for the Crusaders with a solo home run to left field and Kate Free followed with a single and advanced to second on a throwing error by the Vikings.  A Kat Lowery sacrifice bunt moved Free to third and Shawna Juarez then plated Free for the game-tying run, sending it into extra frames.

A scoreless eighth led to Western Washington scoring three runs on three hits in the top of the ninth.  WWU's Meghan Flem singled home the game-winning run, scoring Samantha Rutherford, who had singled to center field to lead off the inning.

Jessica Rosencrants (9-3) earned the win for the Vikings, with Rachel Bare (0-11) taking the loss for the Crusaders.

In the nightcap, Western Washington scored 18 runs on 16 hits, scoring six in the second and eight in the third.  WWU added one in the fourth and three in the fifth before the Crusaders rallied in the bottom half of the fifth.

NNU's rally included seven earned runs on eight hits, with a pair of two-run doubles, one by Cortnee Crane and the other by Haley Heveren.

WWU's Emily Hardin (4-1) earned the win and Dana Shipley (0-9) was saddled with the loss.

Heveren, Shaw, Juarez and Jael Henthorn all finished with three hits on the day, with Hevern, Shaw and Crane each adding two RBI.

The Crusaders will face Seattle University tomorrow in a single non-conference game at 4 p.m.  NNU and Seattle will then play a GNAC doubleheader on Saturday at 11 a.m.

Game One

Western Washington 5, Northwest Nazarene 2 (Mar 13, 2008 at Nampa,Idaho) (Game 1)
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Western Washington.. 001 010 003  -  5 10  1      (13-5, 3-0)
Northwest Nazarene.. 000 000 200  -  2  6  2      (0-20, 0-5)
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Pitchers: Western Washington - Rosencrants. Northwest Nazarene - Bare.
Win-Rosencrants(9-3)  Loss-Bare(0-11)  T-1:58  A-48
HR NNU - Shaw (1).
Game: NNU20

Game Two

Western Washington 18, Northwest Nazarene 9 (Mar 13, 2008 at Nampa,Idaho) (Game 2)
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Western Washington.. 068 13 - 18 16  1      (14-5, 4-0)
Northwest Nazarene.. 002 07 -  9 12  4      (0-21, 0-6)
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Pitchers: Western Washington - Hardin; Jorgensen(5). Northwest Nazarene - Shipley; Bare(5).
Win-Hardin(4-1)  Loss-Shipley(0-9)  T-1:52  A-57
Game: NNU21