Thursday, May 3, 2018

PORTLAND, Ore. – Simon Fraser is in the GNAC Softball Championships for the first time in five years, but they looked like playoff veterans in the tournament opener.

The No. 3 seeded Clan scored seven runs on seven hits over the first two innings while pitcher Alia Stachoski threw a one-hitter en route to a 9-0, five-inning victory over No. 2 seed Central Washington in the first game of the Championships Thursday at Porter Park.

The Clan scattered 11 hits in the victory, paced by a 2 for 3 effort by Taylor Lundrigan that included four RBIs, three of which came on a bases-clearing double in the first. The top-four batters in the SFU order had seven of the team’s hits. Alex Ogg and Kate Fergusson joined Lundrigan with two hits.

While the Simon Fraser offense was hot, Stachoski was just as hot. The senior allowed just one hit, a single up the left field line to Rachael Johnson in the fourth, to pick up her 14th win of the season. She did not allow a walk and struck out three.

Lexie Strasser took the loss for the Wildcats, dropping to 18-9 on the year. She allowed seven runs, six earned, on eight hits and struck out one in two innings.

In the first, Taylor Gillis opened the game by reaching on an error. Ogg and Fergusson followed with singles to load the bases for Lundrigan, who cleared the bases with a double to left center field. Hailey Gearey followed with a bunt single to put runners on the corners. Lundrigan added the fourth run when Gearey wiggled her way out of a rundown between first and second.

The hits kept coming for the Clan in the second. Gillis started things again with a one-out single and Ogg poked her second single of the game before Fergusson brought both home with her triple to right center field. Lundrigan then added her fourth RBI of the day when her single to right plated Fergusson.

With the win, Simon Fraser will face the winner of Thursday’s second game between No. 1 seed Northwest Nazarene and No. 4 seed Western Oregon on Friday at 2 p.m. Central Washington will face the loser between the Nighthawks and Wolves on Friday at 4:30 p.m. in an elimination game.