Friday, May 1, 2015

YAKIMA, Wash. – It was catcher Taylor Clark that delivered the game-winning two-run home run Friday night that kept Western Washington’s 2015 softball season alive.

But it was first baseman Jordan Walley that made it all possible.

Clark broke a 1-1 tie with her sixth inning blast to right field as the Vikings defeated regular-season champion and top-seed Saint Martin’s 6-1 in a loser-out game of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Softball Championships at the Gateway Sports Complex.

WWU (30-17) will now face unbeaten Montana State Billings (28-21) Saturday at noon for the conference tournament championship and an automatic berth in next week’s NCAA Division II West Regionals.  The Vikings are the second seed and MSUB is the third seed.

Meanwhile, Saint Martin’s (41-18) will hope its season-long work, which included a school-record 41 victories, will be enough for the NCAA RAC (Regional Advisory Committee) to award them one of the five at-large berths to the regional, which is divided into a pair of four-team subregionals.

Saint Martin’s scored the first run of Friday night’s game in the opening inning as left fielder Lindsey Miller singled, advanced to second on a wild pitch and to third on a single by Saint shortstop Sam Munger.  Another wild pitch brought Miller home.

Walley, however, got Western Washington even a few minutes later with a leadoff home run in the second.

However, what she did in the sixth was even more important.  With two out, she kept the inning alive with a single.  Clark was the next hitter up and she delivered the game-winner.

That was all WWU pitcher Makinlee Sellevold really needed though the freshman from Cascade High School in Everett made sure by leading off the seventh with a home run to left center.

WWU went on to score two more runs in the inning -  the first on a single by shortstop Alicia Fine and the second on a sacrifice fly by designated player Alexie Levin - and then Sellevold finished off the game in the seventh setting up WWU’s showdown Saturday with the Yellowjackets.

Sellevold, who improved to 25-8, ended up allowing nine hits, but no runs after the first.  She didn't walk anyone which may been significant as she had issued eight free passes in 13 previous tournament innings.

Western Washington also had nine hits, three by Walley who finished the day with five hits in six at bats in the Vikings' two wins, and two by Clark.

The top of the order contributed seven of SMU's nine hits as Lindsey Miller had three and right fielder Mary Dettling and Munger had two apiece.