ELLENSBURG, Wash. - The Central Washington University softball team swept a GNAC doubleheader from the Crusaders on Friday afternoon, taking game one 4-2 and the nightcap 11-3.

Complete release courtesy of CWU Sports Information Director Jonathan Gordon...

ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Apr. 17) -- Freshman Michelle Torre (Kent, Wash./Liberty HS) had a go-ahead two-run single and senior pitcher Linse Vlahovich (Spokane, Wash./University HS) threw a three-hitter in leading Central Washington to a 4-2 win over visiting Northwest Nazarene in game one of a Great Northwest Athletic Conference softball doubleheader on Friday. The Wildcats claimed the nightcap, 11-3 in five innings, to complete the twinbill sweep.

With the wins, Central broke its single-season school record for victories in a season by improving to 25-16 (21-7 GNAC). The Wildcats also moved into a virtual tie for first in the conference with idle Montana State Billings, who is 20-6 in league play. Northwest Nazarene fell to 8-33 (5-23 GNAC).

Central was held scoreless for the first five innings of Friday's opener, falling behind 1-0 in the second inning as Brooke Hesselgesser scored Arielle Chao with a RBI single against Vlahovich. The senior right-hander then settled down, not allowing another hit until the seventh, retiring the next 14 hitters she faced. That performance gave the Wildcat offense time to rise to the occasion in the bottom of the sixth inning, when a one-out infield error and a double by senior Holly Rossman (Olympia, Wash./Black Hills HS) set the stage for Torre's go-ahead single through the left side of the infield. After a walk and groundout, junior Ashley Fix (Puyallup, Wash.) laced a two-run double into the left field corner to give the Wildcats what proved to be the game-winning runs.

Northwest Nazarene responded in the top of the seventh with a leadoff double by Vanessa Shaw, whose pinch-runner, Elizabeth Beaty, came home two score three batters later on another RBI single by Hesselgesser. However, Vlahovich, who struck out eight and didn't walk a batter while improving to 17-6 on the season, induced an infield flyout to preserve the victory.

Rossman's sixth-inning double was her 14th of the season, breaking the school's single-season record that she had shared entering play Friday. Torre was the only Central Washington player with more than one hit in game one, going 2 for 3 (en route to a 3 for 4, four-RBI day at the plate).

In the second game, Central's first six hitters all reached base and scored against NNU starter Dana Shipley en route to a comfortable 11-3 victory. Torre once again had the key hit in the inning, another two-run single, with senior Jackie Hawkins (Olympia, Wash./North Thurston HS) capping the inning's scoring with a two-run single of her own. Rossman and Fix also drove in runs as part of the early-game barrage.

Northwest Nazarene, which scored once in the first, scored twice in the second on a two-out error, but managed just two hits over their final three innings against CWU pitchers Lindy Baxter (Lacey, Wash./River Ridge HS) and Katriina Reime (Hoquiam, Wash.).

Central scored at least one in all four of its innings at bat, adding two runs in the second, one in the third, and two more in the fourth. Senior Liz Wallace (Florence, Mont./Florence-Carlton HS), who finished game two with three hits in as many at-bats and three RBI, drove home two with a second-inning single. She also plated a run in the fourth with her third hit of the game. Freshman Meghan Kopczynski (Ellensburg, Wash.) belted her first collegiate home run to account for the Wildcats' third-inning run.

Baxter scattered three hits and struck out three to earn her second straight pitching victory (3-4) with three innings of work. Reime then surrendered just one hit in her two innings of work to cap off the victory.

The two teams will wrap up their season series on Saturday (Apr. 18) in the final home game of the season for Central Washington.   Game time is scheduled for noon.