SAN MARCOS, Calif. – Northwest Nazarene softball suffered their first loss of the NCAA West Regional on Friday, falling to 4-seed Sonoma State 4-0.
With the defeat, the Nighthawks will now face the winner of San Marcos and Monterey Bay in an elimination game this afternoon at 3:00 p.m. Pacific.
Sonoma got on the board in the top of the first inning, hitting two solo home runs off of NNU starter
Sidney Booth. Booth settled down from there, shutting down the Seawolves from the second to sixth frames.
NNU got runners on base and had multiple chances to score throughout the game, but could not pick up a clutch RBI.
Emma Mulligan was stranded at third in the first inning and then NNU left two runners on base in each of the second and third frames.
The Nighthawks got two on with one out again in the sixth, but a popout to third and flyout to left ended the threat. Sonoma State threatened again in the top of the seventh, loading the bases with two outs, when a grounder to third took a bad hop and got through the infield to allow two unearned runs to score.
Facing a four-run deficit in their final at-bat,
Nicole Zuvela led off the inning with a single, but a fielder's choice, strikeout, and flyout ended the inning and the game.
NNU finished with five hits, with two coming off the bat of
Tori Hensley.
Booth's final line was seven innings, allowing four runs (two earned) on six hits with 11 strikeouts.
