Monday, April 22, 2024
by Thomas Lal

PORTLAND, Ore. –  A commanding sweep of Western Oregon delivered Northwest Nazarene softball at least a share of the regular season title and earned the Nighthawks GNAC selection as the GNAC Team of the Week.

Northwest Nazarene rounded out its regular season on a high note, taking all four games from the Wolves in Nampa with a stellar defensive series to improve to 37-8 on the season and 20-4 in conference play. Across all four games, the Nighthawks allowed just two runs, marking just the 12th time in GNAC history that a team has accomplished the feat in a conference series. With last week’s series in the books, NNU now owns the last three such accomplishments after doing so in 2023 against WOU and MSUB in 2019.

The Nighthawks opened their week with a 4-0 shutout victory last Friday behind Sidney Booth’s 15th complete game of the season. Booth was nearly untouchable in the outing, allowing just two hits and one walk while striking out 11 of the 23 batters she faced. The performance marked Booth’s conference-leading ninth shutout of the season and improved her record to 22-4 on the season with a 1.32 ERA. Emma Bumatay led NNU at the plate in the series opener, going one-for-three with a pair of RBIs courtesy of a two-run single in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Northwest Nazarene took the second half of Friday’s doubleheader by coming out on top of a 3-1 defensive duel. With the game scoreless through four innings, it was the Wolves who broke through first with one run in the top of the fifth. Timely offense prevailed for NNU, however, as the Nighthawks responded with all three of their runs in the bottom of the same frame. Emma Mulligan got the offense going with a two-out RBI single to tie the game up while Booth delivered the game-winning run with a two-RBI single of her own.

Booth proved to be crucial in the circle for NNU once again as well, picking up her second save of the season with one inning of work where she struck out all three batters she faced. Gina Skinner earned the win in the circle, throwing six innings and allowing just one run on three hits while striking out three. The win moved Skinner’s record to 12-2 on the season and her ERA to 1.42.

The first game of Saturday proved to be the most emphatic of the weekend for the Nighthawks as they took a decisive five-inning 8-0 win over the Wolves. The offense came to play early with Booth and Keana Bell both picking up a pair of RBIs in the first inning. Booth put the first runs of the game on the board with a ground-out that scored Mulligan from third and Clarissa Moreno from second. Bell followed that up by knocking in two more runs with her sixth home run of the season.

Booth made it a team-leading three RBIs in the game with a single up the middle to bring Moreno around to score once again. Booth also earned the win in the circle, moving to 22-4 on the year. In her second complete-game effort against the Wolves, Booth scattered four hits while striking out six batters on 78 pitches.

It was another come-from-behind win for NNU to close out the series with a 6-1 victory. The Wolves put their only run of the game on the board in the first inning and held NNU scoreless through two innings. The Nighthawks drew level in the bottom of the third as Jami Obringer stole second base and advanced to third on an error before coming around to score. The game remained tied until the bottom of the fifth where the Northwest Nazarene lineup exploded for five runs. Moreno led the team in the finale with two RBIs while going one-for-three at the plate.

Skinner authored her second win of the week and 13th on the season by throwing six innings for the Nighthawks and allowing just one run on nine hits while striking out two batters. Booth and Mia Taylor combined to throw the final inning, not allowing a single hit in the process.

With the regular season in the books for Northwest Nazarene, the Nighthawks now wait to see if they will claim sole possession of the GNAC regular season title ahead of the 2024 GNAC Softball Championships on May 2-4 in Bellingham.