IRVINE, Calif. – History made. With a 2-1 victory over Central Washington to open the 2021 NCAA DII West Regional, Northwest Nazarene softball has earned their first-ever NCAA postseason victory.
 
The three-seed Nighthawks got a pair of solo homers from Brittany Genuardi and Ivy Hommel along with a stellar performance in the circle from Sidney Booth to take down the six-seed Wildcats.
 
NNU moves on into the winner's bracket and will now face two-seed Biola tomorrow afternoon in Irvine, set for a 2:30 p.m. PT/3:30 PM MT start.
 
The first three innings were scoreless, with NNU starter Booth and CWU starter Samantha Stanfield staying out of any trouble. The Wildcats would get on the board first in the top of the fourth, though, as Theresa Moyle tripled with one out and came home on a single from Maddy Zerr.
 
The Nighthawks answered back immediately as the first batter up in the bottom of the fourth, recently named D2CCA West Region Player of the Year Brittany Genuardi, launched a solo blast over the fence in dead center field to even the score at 1-1.
 
Neither team got anything going in the fifth, and Booth shut down the Wildcats yet again in the top of the sixth. The tie was broken in the bottom of the inning, though, as Ivy Hommel drilled a homer to left to lead off the inning and put NNU in front 2-1.
 
It was then up to Booth to close out the game in the top of the seventh, and she set the Wildcats down with a popup, groundout, and flyout to seal the win.
 
Booth finished with just the one run allowed on four hits, striking out seven without issuing a walk over the complete game effort.
 
Hommel and Genuardi combined for four of NNU's six hits, each having identical lines of 2-3 with a homer and an RBI.