NAMPA, Idaho – Northwest Nazarene softball had a dramatic walk-off 11-10 win in the opener against Saint Martin's on Saturday, but fell 11-2 in game two to split the day and the series with the Saints.
The Nighthawks move to 16-13 overall on the year and 6-6 in GNAC play.
Game 1: NNU 11, SMU 10
For the third time in the series, Saint Martin's got on the board first as they scored two in the top of the opening inning. NNU got one back right away in the bottom of the frame as
Charlotte Forniss singled home
Clarissa Moreno.
After SMU increased their lead to 3-1 in the top of the second, the Nighthawks came back with three runs in the bottom of the inning to take the lead.
Emma Mulligan notched a sacrifice fly,
Ava Clark drilled an RBI triple, and Moreno brought home Clark with an RBI single.
NNU's bats stayed hot in the third, as
Keana Bell blasted a solo homer to left,
Annie Swanson registered an RBI single, and Clark brought home another run with an RBI groundout to put the Nighthawks up 7-3. Two more came across in the fourth, with Forniss hitting a solo homer and
Kellcie Adams an RBI single to bring it to 9-3.
The fifth inning was trouble for Nighthawks' pitching, though, as the Saints were able to put up seven runs, with five of them unearned after a two-out error, to take a 10-9 lead.
NNU tied it back up at 10-10 in the bottom of the fifth, though, with another RBI single from Adams. The sixth inning was scoreless for both teams, the only frame without runs in the game.
After another zero was put up by NNU pitching in the top of the seventh,
Emma Bumatay led off the bottom of the inning and ended the marathon with one swing. She deposited the second pitch she saw over the wall in left center field for a walk-off home run.
Bumatay had a great game in addition to the walk-off, going 4-5 at the plate. Adams was 4-4 with her two RBIs, Forniss was 3-4, and Moreno and Mulligan each added two hits as NNU outhit SMU 20-9.
Forniss registered 20 of the 21 outs in the circle, allowing five earned runs.
Miah Lusk entered to get the final out of the top of the seventh and earned the win after the walk-off.
Game 2: SMU 11, NNU 2 (5 inn.)
Once again, it was SMU on the board first with two runs in the top of the first inning. NNU got one back in the bottom of the inning with an RBI single from Bumatay.
The second inning spelled trouble for the Nighthawks, though, as the Saints put up seven runs to go up 9-1. Two more SMU tallies in the third and fourth made it 11-1.
The Nighthawks added one run in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI single from
Lauryn Bergevin, but SMU would take the run-rule 11-2 victory after five innings.
Bumatay had two more hits to bring her total on the day to six.
Next Up
The Nighthawks head back out on the road during Spring Break next week, traveling down to California for non-conference games against Cal State Monterey Bay and Academy of Art from March 25-27.
