Game One Boxscore
Game Two Boxscore

NAMPA, Idaho - Freshman pitcher Cara Duckworth earned a complete-game nine-inning victory in her first collegiate outing as the Northwest Nazarene University softball team opened the season on Friday afternoon with a 3-2 victory over Western Washington University at Halle Field on the NNU campus. 

 

Also the Great Northwest Athletic Conference openers for both teams, the Vikings (1-1) bounced back to take game two 13-0, riding the arm of Sarah McEnroe and the bat of Caitlin Dotlich. 

 

The Vikings scored the first two runs of the season in the third inning of game one when Kelsey Anderson led off with a walk and later scored on a Michelle Wrigley double down the left field line.  Following a Duckworth strikeout of Andrea Sherrill, Meghan Flem singled, scoring Wrigley.  Duckworth ended the scoring threat, striking out Krista Bickar to end the inning.

 

The Crusaders (1-1) would cut the lead to 2-1 in the fifth when Sarah Varady led off with a double to left field, moved to third on a Dana Mitchell sacrifice bunt, and then scored on a pinch-hit single by Kristin Refsland in her first collegiate at-bat.

 

NNU's Cat Lowery tied the score at 2-2 with a solo home run in the sixth, her second career round-tripper.

 

WWU pressured Duckworth in the seventh as Stephanie Fox walked and a Crusader throwing error put Kelsey Anderson on base, moving Fox to third and Anderson to second. 

 

However, the freshman right-hander from Melba, Idaho responded, striking out pinch-hitter Tobey Varney and getting Michelle Wrigley and Sherrill to ground-out and end the threat.  Duckworth would then retire the next six Viking hitters in order, working into the ninth.

 

Crusader catcher Arielle Chao led off the ninth with a single up the middle and then promptly stole second.  A McEnroe passed ball moved Chao to third, when NNU head coach Julie Coert pinch-ran Emily Renfrow for Chao at third.  Varady then hit a ground ball to McEnroe, who fielded the ball and threw Varady out at first, but Renfrow broke for home and slid under the tag of Viking catcher Samantha Rutherford for the game-winning run. 

 

In the nightcap, McEnroe (1-1) surrendered just two hits in the circle, an infield single in the first and a single up the middle in the fifth, and Dotlich smacked a grand-slam home run in the fourth to put the visitors in control at 10-0.  Varney would follow the home run with a double to center and then scored on Karli Baumgartner's pinch-hit single to end the Viking fourth with an 11-0 lead.

 

WWU added two more in the fifth when Morgan Parkerson homered to left and Stephanie Fox reached on a throwing error, later scoring the unearned run for the final tally of 13-0.

 

The teams will return for another GNAC doubleheader tomorrow at 11:00 a.m.