Monday, May 7, 2018

INDIANAPOLIS – In the first trip to the NCAA Division II Softball Championship, Northwest Nazarene will face one of its toughest tests ever.

The GNAC regular-season and tournament champions will play CCAA champion Chico State in the West 1 Regional of the tournament, which begins on Thursday at the Wildcat Softball Field in Chico, Calif. Start time has yet to be announced.

Northwest Nazarene clinched its first trip to the NCAA Division II postseason by winning all three of its games at the GNAC Softball Championships. The Nighthawks earned the conference’s automatic bid to the tournament with a 1-0 victory over Simon Fraser in the championship final, with the one run coming on a leadoff home run by Anna Williams in the bottom of the first inning.

Sharing the GNAC regular-season title with Central Washington, the Nighthawks lead the GNAC with a .315 batting average and are second in the league with a 3.38 earned run average. Northwest Nazarene has three batters ranked in the conference’s top-10. Junior Kylie Orr is eighth with a .362 average. Williams, the GNAC Newcomer of the Year, is ninth with a .358 average while sophomore Brittany Genuardi is 10th with a .355 average. In all, seven NNU batters boast averages of .300 or better.

Pitcher Jordan Adams was named both the GNAC Pitcher and Freshman of the Year. She enters the NCAA Tournament with a GNAC-leading 1.35 earned run average, 19 wins and 156 strikeouts. In her two complete-game victories at the GNAC Championships, Adams allowed no runs and just nine hits while striking out 18.

The Wildcats, NNU’s first-round opponent and the sub-regional host, won the CCAA with a 50-3 record and won the conference’s postseason tournament with a 3-2 win over Chico State. The winner of the game will face the winner of the contest betweeen No. 4 seed Cal Baptist and No. 5 seed UC San Diego.