By: Burke De Boer Sports Editor
A trip to Portland saw Wolves softball win three of four games against Concordia to continue their climb up the conference ladder.
After an additional double header in Hillsboro, Western Oregon extended their win streak to the current longest in the GNAC.
The pair of doubleheaders opened on April 13, with a slow start for the Wolves as they lost the first matchup, 1-3. The lowest scoring match of the entire series saw Western take the lead immediately but fail to close the game.
The first run came in the first inning, after sophomore Ryanne Huffman advanced to a scoring position by stealing second base.
First-year student Chandler Bishop batted Huffman in to take the lead.
The Wolves led for five innings. Sophomore pitcher Haley Fabian had four strikeouts over this span, giving up only one walk and one hit.
All three of Concordia’s runs came in the sixth inning, on a back-to-back RBI double and home run.
The Wolves’ offense had plenty of opportunity to open scoring themselves, as eight hits in the game and led to six runners left stranded.
The second of the two Thursday games was more explosive offensively as the Wolves powered their way to a 6-4 victory.
Senior Destiny Kuehl had two hits for four RBIs. Seniors Kelsie Gardner and Ashlee Lynch each had three hits. Gardner had three runs from her hits.
The game was tied 1-1 after the first, when Emma Alfonso hit a single in the second to bat in junior Zoe Clark. Kuehl singled later in the inning to bat in both Alfonso and Gardner.
The Wolves picked up a pair of wins on the second day of competition, where they won the first game 6-1 and the second 10-1.
Kuehl opened scoring in the first game with a three-run home run in the third inning and went on to bat in Gardner in the fifth.
Clark hit a home run of her own in the sixth, also scoring sophomore Courtney Lau Hee.
Bishop served as pitcher, throwing twelve groundouts allowing only one run off of six hits.
“It felt great to get the full seven innings and get the win,” said Bishop. “I am not a strikeout pitcher and rely on my defense greatly, so it’s such a great feeling when I know they have my back before I even pitch the ball. My catcher, Mercedes [Green] also called a great game and I trusted her completely. It also helps when our offense was putting up runs to take a little pressure off of me.”
Kuehl picked up two more home runs in the landslide second victory.
Fabian pitched her eighth complete game of the year, allowing only five hits to improve to an 8-7 record.
After the weekend, on April 17, softball won both sides of a double header against Simon Fraser on neutral ground in Hillsboro. The Wolves found themselves trailing 0-7 in the second game after four innings but had a monster rally over the last three frames to pull off a 9-8 win. Senior Hailee Watilo had two runs, while Zoe Clark, senior Ku’ulei Siolo and first-year student Ashley Doyle each had two RBIs.
With the wins, the Wolves advance to a 8-8 conference record. Since the start of April, softball has improved from the bottom of the conference to being ranked fifth.
Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu
