Saturday, May 6, 2023

BURNABY, B.C. – Emma Bumatay brought the boom and Sidney Booth brought the heat in the circle to secure Northwest Nazarene’s second straight GNAC Softball Championships title with a 3-2 victory over Western Washington at Beedie Field on the campus of Simon Fraser University.

Booth was named the 2023 GNAC Softball Championships MVP after finishing the tournament with two-complete game victories under her belt, including a no-hitter on Friday. Booth secured the title for NNU with a seven-inning performance, allowing two runs on seven hits with four strikeouts and no walks.

She also finished the game with one RBI on a sacrifice fly that proved to be critical down the stretch. For the tournament, Booth finished with a 0.88 ERA through 16 innings and allowed just three runs, two earned, on 11 hits and three walks with 10 strikeouts.

Western Washington senior Mareena Ramirez picked up the loss in the circle after starting all four games of the tournament for the Vikings. She finished the tournament with a 4.20 ERA after throwing 437 pitches through 23.1 innings and striking out 12 batters.

Much like Friday, Northwest Nazarene got the offense going early, putting the first three batters on base with Clarissa Moreno drawing a walk and Tori Hensley putting an infield single off the outstretched glove of Ramirez. Reigning GNAC Player of the Year Maia McNicoll loaded the bases for NNU with a walk, setting the table for Booth’s sacrifice fly to bring across the first run of the game. McNicoll’s walk was the first of three on the day as she showed extreme patience in the batter’s box.

Ramirez worked her way out of the first-inning jam by retiring the next two NNU batters with a pair of strikeouts. The Western Washington offense also got going on time with junior Isabelle Cargill reaching first base on a single through the infield. Cargill’s hit was the first that Booth allowed since Thursday. That hit wouldn’t come back to bite the Nighthawks, however, as Booth retired the power bats of Hailey Rath and Brooke Fesenbek to end the first frame.

After Ramirez came back with a quick one-two-three inning in the second, Amaya Davis ramped up the pressure immediately, leading off the second inning with a double for the Vikings. Davis came across the plate to tie the game at 1-1 after WWU catcher Emily Paulson slashed an RBI single into right field.

Ramirez and Booth traded three-up, three-down innings in the third before the NNU bats sparked up again in the top of the fourth. Junior Abigail Gagnon got the offense started with an eight-pitch walk before center-fielder Madison Felter reached base on a first-pitch infield single. It was the Western Washington defense that came through in the bases-loaded situation later in the inning, however, with Ramirez forcing a fly-out to end the NNU threat.

After two innings where the pitchers and defense ruled the diamond, Felter struck a leadoff single into left field to ignite a two-run inning for the Nighthawks. Both runs came for NNU on a pinch-hit home run by Bumatay that clattered off the scoreboard and gave Northwest Nazarene a 3-1 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth.  

Rath delivered Western Washington its first baserunner since the second inning with a one-out single in the sixth, but only after Booth sat down 13 WWU batters in a row. Working from the stretch didn’t seem to faze Booth, however, as she used her defense to the Nighthawks’ advantage, retiring the next two batters with a ground ball and a fly out.

With elimination on the line, the Vikings clawed back a run in the bottom of the seventh with an Emily Barcomb two-out RBI single. The last gasp would prove to come up just short though as Kinzey Williams popped out to NNU shortstop Moreno, putting the squeeze on the final out of the tournament.

With the GNAC Championships victory, Northwest Nazarene recives the conference’s automatic berth to the NCAA Championships. The West Regional will take place on May 11-13 following Monday’s NCAA Softball Championships selection show 7 a.m.