PARKLAND - Pacific Lutheran and Willamette split a pair of games - the first shortened to five innings, the second going nine frames before being decided - of a Northwest Conference softball doubleheader played Sunday afternoon at the PLU field.
The Lutes scored 10 runs in both games, winning the opener 10-2 in a contest shortened by the eight-run rule, before Willamette's Nichole Robertson hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning to give her team a 12-10 victory in the second game. After winning three of four in the series, PLU is now 4-4 overall and 3-1 in the conference. Willamette is now 3-7 for the season and 3-5 in the NWC.
Game One: PLU 10, Willamette 2
As she did in throwing a complete-game two-hitter yesterday, Stacey Hagensen had a strong performance in Sunday's opener. She went all five innings, allowing a pair of earned runs on four hits while walking one and striking out three.
Pacific Lutheran used the long ball to highlight a 10-run second inning. Kaely Cuthill, who hit a solo shot on Saturday for her first collegiate homer, drilled a grand slam homer over the right field fence. Later in the inning, Lindsey Matsunaga clubbed her first collegiate homer, a three-run shot, accounting for the final three runs of the frame. The Lutes had six hits in the inning and also benefitted from two hit batters and a throwing error. Ami Gran and Amanda Goings both had run-producing singles in the frame.
The Bearcats tallied a run in the fourth when Jessica Barry hit a single, stole second and third, and then scored on Mica Romero's ground out. They notched their second run in the fifth when Kelli Snyder singled and eventually came in on Robertson's double.
The Lutes managed only six hits against a pair of Willamette pitchers, with Bri Compton giving up seven runs, six earned, in one inning of work to take the loss.
The contest last just one hour and nine minutes.
Game Two: Willamette 12, PLU 10
The second game featured a total of 22 runs, 25 hits - including five homers - and it lasted three hours.
PLU opened the scoring in the first when Cuthill hit a single, stole second and then scored on Hagensen's base hit. But by the time that the Lutes came to bat in the fourth, they trailed 10-1.
The Bearcats scored once in the second on Talissa Huntsman's home run, and they added seven runs in the third on four hits, two errors and two wild pitches. Sierra Lessel had a RBI fielder's choice and Huntsman drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, but the big blow of the inning was Susie Krewer's three-run homer over the left field fence.
Willamette added two more in the fourth when Lessel reached on an error and Romero walked, followed by Huntsman's two-run double.
The Lutes started their comeback with five runs in the fourth inning. Goings reached on a single, Nitta followed with a double, and both tallied on Matsunaga's base hit. Hagensen later added a RBI single, and the Lutes also scored on a throwing error and a wild pitch.
Trailing 10-6 entering the bottom of the seventh, the Lutes used a pair of two-run homers to tie the game and send it to extra innings. With one out and Hagensen on first following a single, Katie Lowery hit her first collegiate homer to make it 10-8. With two gone, Nitta kept the inning going with a double, and Matsunaga followed with a home run to center field.
PLU had a chance to win the game in the bottom of the eighth, loading the bases with one out, but it failed to score. Willamette's Robertson made the hosts pay, drilling a two-run blast to left to decide the game.
Huntsman led the Bearcats with three hits and four runs batted in, while Robertson added a pair of hits to the 10-hit attack. Alex Watilo, the starting pitcher, who later re-entered the game in the bottom of the seventh after the Lutes had tied it, ended up earning the victory and improving her record to 3-1. She allowed six runs, five earned, on 11 hits in six innings of work.
The Lutes had 15 hits in the game, including three each by Hagensen and Matsunaga, and two apiece by Cuthill and Nitta. VanSchoorl, who like Watilo re-entered the game after starting, took the loss, giving up four earned runs on five hits in 7 2/3 innings.
PLU returns to conference action at 1 p.m. Friday when it hosts Lewis & Clark College in a doubleheader that was rescheduled from Feb. 27 because of snow in Parkland.
- PLU -
