ELLENSBURG, Wash. – Northwest Nazarene softball came up short in a pair of one-run games at Central Washington on Friday, falling to the Wildcats 7-6 and 9-8.
Game One
NNU seemed to be in the driver's seat to begin game one, as the first three batters of the game reached before
Maia McNicoll launched a grand slam to center field to put the Nighthawks up four early. NNU added one more run on a Wildcat error before the inning was over to take a 5-0 lead.
The Nighthawks made it 6-0 in the second as
Sidney Booth drove in
Ivy Hommel with a single. CWU got one back in the third, but then it was the fifth inning that spelled doom for the Nighthawks.
The Wildcats tallied six unearned runs in the frame that had three Nighthawk errors along with a three-run homer, to take a 7-6 advantage that would stand for the rest of the game. NNU got the tying run in scoring position in the seventh with a one-out double from
Emilie Hernandez, but the run was stranded at third.
Hommel, Booth, and Hernandez each had two hits, with Hommel also scoring twice. Booth went seven innings, with just one of the seven runs allowed being earned. She also struck out six and didn't walk a batter.
Game Two
Central struck first in game two with two runs in the bottom of the first inning. NNU would get on the board and take the lead in the third, as Booth recorded an RBI double and then scored on a two-run homer from
Tori Hensley.
The Nighthawks again took a big lead with four runs in the top of the fourth, including a two-RBI single from McNicoll, going up 7-2. However, the Wildcats would not go away, putting up four of their own in the bottom of the frame to cut the lead to 7-6.
McNicoll brought the lead back up to two, 8-6, with her second homer of the day in the top of the seventh.
The error bug would bite the Nighthawks again in the bottom of the inning, though, as two more miscues allowed three unearned runs to score and gave the Wildcats a 9-8 walkoff win.
Next Up
NNU and CWU will play two more games of the non-conference doubleheader against a fellow GNAC foe, with first pitch of game one coming at noon Pacific on Saturday. Conference play will then officially begin next weekend when the Nighthawks visit Western Washington.
