Saturday, May 2, 2015

YAKIMA, Wash. –   Second baseman Aubrey Conceicao drove in four runs, including three with a double in the sixth inning, as Montana State Billing rallied from a 5-2 deficit to defeat Western Washington 9-5 and win the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Softball Championship Saturday at the Gateway Sports Complex.

The Yellowjackets (29-21) will now advance to the NCAA West Regionals beginning either next Thursday or Friday. The Vikings finished their season with a record of 30-18.

The eight-team regional will be divided into a pair of four-team subregionals.  The NCAA will reveal the participants and two sites Monday at 7 a.m. Pacific via a news release on the NCAA official web site (ncaa.com).

MSUB will be joined in the regional by the champions of the PacWest Conference and the California Collegiate Athletic Association and five at-large teams.  GNAC regular-season champion Saint Martin’s, which was ranked sixth in this week’s West Regional poll, hopes to receive one of the five at-large berths.

MSUB scored twice in the third inning on a single by first baseman Emily Osborn to go ahead 2-1, but the Vikings countered with four runs in their half of the inning, three on a home run by first baseman Jordan Walley.

 The Yellowjackets, however, then climbed back to within one run in the fifth as Conceicao got her first RBI of the game on a single, then scored on a double by designated hitter Cameron Cassinelli, who was selected the Tournament Most Valuable Player.

In the sixth still trailing by one run, MSUB loaded the bases on an error, a single by left fielder Amanda Barham and a walk.  Conceicao then delivered her game-winning hit.  She then moved to third on a single by Osborn and scored on a sacrifice fly by Cassinelli, who finished the tournament with seven RBI.

All four of Cassinelli’s hits in the tournament went for extra bases including two doubles and two home runs from its early wins against Western Washington and Saint Martin’s.

MSUB added an insurance run in the seventh.  Meanwhile  Jessyka MacDonald (19-6) didn’t allow a run over the final four innings in throwing her third consecutive complete-game win.  In 21 innings in the tournament, she allowed 17 hits and nine runs, all earned as MSUB made just two errors.

That was in sharp contrast to the Yellowjackets opponents who were charged with 14 errors in the three games leading to 12 unearned runs.

Western Washington was charged with six errors in the championship game and four of the runs off losing pitcher Makinlee Sellevold (25-9) were unearned.

Western Washington  jumped to a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning as Autumn Isaacson led off the bottom of the frame with a triple – her league leading sixth of the season – and scored on a sacrifice bunt by shortstop Alicia Fine.

The Yellowjackets, however, took advantage of a pair of walks and a two-out error in the third to go ahead 2-1 on Osborn’s single.   

MSUB finished the game with nine hits, two each by Conceicao, Osborn and third baseman Kelsey Devlin.  Lead-off hitter Bella Roves and cleanup hitter Brittney Sanders each walked three times – and each scored three times without getting a hit.

Second baseman Kali Patterson had three of WWU’s  seven hits, while Isaacson, who also stole her 33^rd base of the season extending her own GNAC record, had two hits and scored two of her team’s five runs.