Sunday, April 28, 2024
by Evan O'Kelly, Assistant Commissioner For Communications

PORTLAND, Ore. – The field is set for the 2024 GNAC Softball Championships which kick off on Thursday at Viking Field in Bellingham, Wash.

Northwest Nazarene (37-8, 20-4 GNAC) won its fourth consecutive GNAC regular-season title to secure the No. 1 seed into the conference tournament for the fourth year in-a-row. Western Washington went 39-7 overall and 19-5 in conference play to pick up the No. 2 spot in the tournament, while Saint Martin’s (25-18, 16-8) will be the three seed and Central Washington (17-28, 12-12) earned the fourth and final berth.

The Vikings and Nighthawks have met twice in the championship round of the tournament, with WWU claiming the 2021 crown and NNU returning the favor a season ago. If the two teams are destined to meet next weekend, it could settle a 2-2 stalemate between them as they split their regular-season series. WWU was ranked No. 13 and NNU No. 14 in last week’s NFCA coaches’ top-25 poll, and the duo were ranked first and second, respectively, in the latest NCAA regional rankings released last week. Saint Martin’s gave the conference three regionally-ranked teams, checking in at No. 7.

Tickets for the 2024 GNAC Softball Championships can be purchased online here.

Winners of each of the last two tournaments, Northwest Nazarene looks to extend its streak to three in-a-row and gets started against No. 4 seed Central Washington at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday. The Nighthawks won their first GNAC Championships event in 2018, before bringing home the trophy again in 2022 and 2023. NNU’s three conference tournament titles are the most of any GNAC team since the event was founded in 2013.

Sidney Booth leads the GNAC in ERA (1.32), opponents’ batting average (.176), strikeouts (162) and wins (22), as she has paced the Nighthawks all season long. Gina Skinner meanwhile holds a 1.42 ERA while logging 103 2/3 innings for NNU. NNU holds a team batting average of .275 and ranked third in the GNAC with 31 home runs during the regular season. The Nighthawks also led the league with 69 stolen bases.

Central Washington returns to the conference tournament after missing last year’s event, and has its sights set on hoisting the trophy for the first time since 2016. The Wildcats carry a team ERA of 4.05, ranking fourth in the conference, while hitting .240 as a team across their 45 games. Central Washington was one of just three GNAC teams to defeat NNU this spring, earning a 4-3 triumph on March 29 in a series that the Nighthawks claimed 3-1. NNU also won a non-conference series between the two 4-0 on Feb. 23-24 in Ellensburg.

Saint Martin’s enters the GNAC Championships with a team batting average of .274 and a team ERA of 4.14, as the Saints played their way to a third-place finish in the conference standings. The Saints came close to their second tournament title in 2022, but fell to Northwest Nazarene twice on Championship Saturday. The team’s 2013 tournament title was its only other trip to the championship game.

Western Washington cruises into the playoffs on the heels of three straight victories, and with the momentum of a program-record 39 wins thus far in 2024. WWU started the season off with a GNAC-record 13 consecutive victories, before recording a program-record 17-game winning streak during the campaign. The Vikings are the only other GNAC team besides NNU to have won multiple conference tournaments, first claiming the crown in 2017 before repeating two seasons ago.

The Vikings won all six of their games against Saint Martin’s this season, including a pair of non-conference contests on Feb. 23 and a four-game sweep on March 29-30 when the teams last met.

All games of the 2024 GNAC Softball Championships will be streamed live on the GNAC YouTube channel, available online here. Shawn Walli will provide play-by-play commentary, and live statistics for all tournament games will be available online here.