Friday, May 2, 2014
RICHLAND, Wash. - Central Washington scored in each of its four at bats in defeating defending champion Saint Martin's 9-1 in a loser-out game at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Softball Championship tournament Friday night at Columbia Playfield.
The third-seeded Wildcats (29-17) will play top-seed and regular-season champion Western Oregon (32-20) in the championship game Saturday at noon. A win by CWU would force a second game.
The Wildcats scored single runs in the first as Maikala Galusha walked and eventually scored on a single by Jill McDaniels and in the second as Galusha singled to plate Andrea Hamada.
Central then exploded for four runs in the third before adding three in the fourth. The big hit in the third frame was a three-run double by leadoff hitter Sammy Morris. That came after Kailyn Campbell had plated the first run on a single.
In the fourth, Campbell, third baseman Andrea Hamada and left fielder Jordan Zurfluh all had RBI singles.
Saint Martin's got its lone run in the five-inning game in the third on a single by Sam Munger, who started the game in the circle before moving to first base in the third inning after surrendering CWU's first five runs. Munger took the loss to finish her junior season with a record of 20-16. The Saints ended up 27-22.
CWU's Maria Gau allowed five hits in five innings in earning her 18th win against seven losses. Saint second baseman Lacey McGladrey, who was a first team NFCA All-American last year, had two of the hits.
The Wildcats had 12 hits by nine different players. McDaniels, catcher Austin Wilkerson and Campbell had two each.
The winner of Saturday's matchup between the Wildcats and Wolves will receive an automatic berth in next week's NCAA West Regional tournament.
The tournament qualifiers and two sites will be announced Monday at 7 a.m. with a web cast on ncaa.com. The regional will be divided into two four-team sub regionals with the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams in the regional poll the likely hosts.
In this week's poll, Central Washington was ranked seventh and Western Washington was ranked eighth. Western Oregon was unranked.