Game One
Game Two

NAMPA, Idaho - Cara Duckworth's eighth inning walk-off home run gave the Northwest Nazarene softball team a Great Northwest Athletic Conference sweep of Western Oregon University on Friday afternoon at Halle Field.  The Crusaders won the opener 3-1 and Duckworth handed the Crusaders a 6-5 win in the nightcap.

 

NNU's Chelsey Anderson (7-5) out-dueled Western Oregon's Jessica Wood (4-14) in the opener, surrendering only two hits and one earned run to earn the pitching victory. 

 

Western Oregon (9-21, 6-12 GNAC) scored one run in the second on doubles by Wood and Ashley Gardner, but would be held hitless for the remainder of the contest. 

 

The Crusaders scored all three of their runs in the sixth, led by Liz Beaty's team-leading seventh home run of the year, a solo shot to tie the game at 1-1.  Pinch-runner Becky Louber then scored the game-winner, coming home on Cat Lowery's ground ball to second that also scored Haley Hevern due to a fielding error that sent the ball into right field.  Hevern had been hit by a pitch earlier in the inning and Louber was running for Chelsea Allsbrook who had drawn a walk following Beaty's home run.

 

Western Oregon scored all five of their game two runs on home runs, a solo shot to center field by Jessica Hallmark in the second and a grand slam by Wood in the third.

 

NNU matched the WOU run in the second on a Nicole Grummons RBI single and would plate three more in the third when Lowery cleared the bases with a three-run double to left field.

 

Trailing 5-4 into the fourth, Beaty picked up her second RBI of the day with a single that scored Arielle Chao to tie the game at 5-5.  Chao had doubled to right center and moved to third on a Kristin Refsland walk and a Allsbrook single.

 

Western Oregon would threaten in the top of the eighth as Kendra George and Gardner both produced two-out singles. Andrea Bailey would then single into the hole between shortstop and third base, but NNU's shortstop Hevern would make a diving play on the ball, keeping George at third.  Grummons (5-12) would then strike out Tierra-Lyn Cuba for the third out, setting up Duckworth's heroic blast.

 

Beaty and Grummons each finished with two hits for NNU, while Bailey was 3 for 5 for the Wolves.

 

The teams will return on Saturday for a doubleheader at Noon.