Monday, May 20, 2024
by Evan O'Kelly, Assistant Commissioner For Communications

LONGWOOD, Fla. – Squaring off against the No. 3 team in Division II on Monday afternoon at Boombah-Soldiers Creek Park, Western Washington fell 10-1 to UT Tyler on Day 2 of the 2024 NCAA Division II Softball Championships.

The Patriots (55-8) scored early and often as they advanced along the winner’s bracket with a 2-0 record at the championship tournament. Western Washington (49-10) endured its first defeat at the event and will play the winner of a matchup between No. 1 seed AUM and No. 5 seed Charleston that is set for Tuesday at 11 a.m. ET/8 a.m. PT. The Vikings’ next game, which will be an elimination affair, will follow at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT on Tuesday afternoon.

The Patriots jumped on WWU starter Joie Baker, as Nicole Price punched a one-out single to left, Courtney Plocheck brought her home with a triple and JT Smith followed with a sacrifice fly to make the score 2-0 in the top of the first.

Hailey Rath got the Vikings’ first hit of the day, lacing a double to the wall in right-center in the bottom of the first. UT Tyler starter Christin Haygood stranded the runner in scoring position however, putting up a zero in her first frame of the day. Haygood allowed just one unearned run on three hits in her 6 1/3 innings of work, striking out one and walking one on the way to her 20th win of the season.

The Patriots added to their advantage in the top of the second, plating three more runs to build a 5-0 cushion. Cassidi Mullen got the rally started with a double to left center, before Sam Schott drew a bases-loaded walk and Price lifted a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded.

WWU reliever Alli Kimball settled into a groove in her second inning of work, working around a leadoff single by Michelle Arias and retiring the next three Patriots she faced. Maleah Andrews laced a two-out double to the wall in center in the third, and Kanilehua Pitoy came up just short of a two-run home run as her high fly ball was caught on the track by Schott.

Clarisa Zapata promptly led off the top of the fourth by sending her third home run of the season over the fence in center, increasing the Patriots’ advantage to 6-0. WWU’s Kaiana Kong worked around a walk and a single to strand a pair of baserunners and limit the damage to a single run. The freshman right-hander built off the momentum, retiring a string of eight straight UT Tyler hitters through the sixth inning.

Haygood was equally impressive across the middle innings however, mowing down seven Vikings in a row after Andrews’ double to get through five scoreless frames.

The Patriots put the game away in the top of the seventh, rallying for four more runs driven in by four different players. WWU got on the board in the bottom of the frame on an RBI-ground out by Emily Paulson, but that was all the scoring the Vikings managed of the UT Tyler pitching staff.

Plocheck was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and Zapata had a pair of hits to lead the Patriots, who were the designated visiting team in the neutral-site affair.

For the Vikings, Kimball allowed no runs on one hit with one walk in two innings of work, while Kong surrendered five runs – two earned – on seven hits with two strikeouts and a walk in four innings of relief.

Monday was the first-ever softball meeting between the Vikings and Patriots.

UP NEXT: The Vikings will await the winner of the AUM/Charleston elimination game, and will need to win on Tuesday to keep their historic season alive.

ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BRACKET: UIndy outlasted Lenoir-Rhyne 1-0 in the first game of the day Monday, improving to 2-0. No. 3 seed Wilmington and No. 7 seed Augustana are set to square off in Tuesday’s second elimination game, with a 1:30 p.m. ET/10:30 a.m. PT first pitch scheduled for that game.

GNAC HISTORY IN THE MAKING: WWU is the first team since the GNAC was founded in 2001 to reach the NCAA Division II College World Series. The Vikings finished second in the GNAC regular-season standings with a league record of 19-5, before going 3-0 on their home field to capture the program’s third GNAC Championships tournament trophy. From there, the Vikings went 4-1 at the west regional and defeated Cal State Dominguez Hills 2-1 in a three-game super regional series to advance to the NCAA Championships. Overall in 2024 WWU went 9-2 on its home field in the playoffs. The Vikings set the GNAC record for consecutive wins to start a season with 13, broke the school record with a mid-season, 17-game winning streak and shattered the previous program record for wins in a season which was 34. WWU’s 49 wins this spring are fourth-most in GNAC history, and the most by a conference team since Humboldt State won 54 games in 2006.