Lady Wolves go 1-1 in double header against Saint Martin's

The Western softball team earned a doubleheader split on Senior Day (April 21) as Montana State Billings took game one 6-5, before the Wolves bounced back behind with aggressive base running to win game two 5-1. As Western earned its third straight doubleheader split, they remained at .500 in the GNAC with a 15-15 conference mark (19-24 overall). The split also allowed the Saints (29-16, 19-11 GNAC) to remain four games ahead of the Wolves for third place in the GNAC standings.

In game one, the Montana State Billings scored five runs in the top of the second and then held off multiple comeback attempts from Western to earn a 6-5 win in the opener.

The score would remain at 5-3 before Western cut the lead to one on an RBI groundout by Dani Harcourt. Saint Martin’s would tack on what would prove to be the game-winning run in the top of the sixth on a two-out single to push its lead to 6-4.

Western would again cut the lead back to one in the bottom of the sixth on a double by Kendra George and a single by Andrea Bailey, but that is as close as they would get. Ashley Worthey had three hits to lead the Wolves, and both Lexi Orteza and Jourdan Williams added two apiece.

Sam Munger led the Saints in the circle and in the box. She picked up the win by throwing a complete game and also added a three run homer in the five-run second inning. The top three hitters in the SMU order combined to go 5-for-9 with six RBI.

In game two, Western used savvy base running to score three runs on the bases as they took the game 5-1. The Wolves would get on the board with three runs in the first, which included steals of home by Andrea Bailey and Ashley Worthey.

Both steals of home came when Western had runners on first and third, and the runner from first broke for second, causing a throw down by the Saints’ catcher which allowed the runner from third to steal home.

Western would pad their lead with two runs in the third, as Amanda Evola gave the Wolves their third steal of home of the game and Danyelle Hutchison brought in Desiree Villegas with a sacrifice fly. This would be all the runs Myranda Sawyer (7-5) would need. She allowed four hits and one run over seven innings to pick up her seventh win of the season.

“We came into the game confident, the team wanted to win. Saint Martin’s is one of the most obnoxious teams in the league and we needed to show them how good we are,” stated pitcher Myranda Sawyer. She continued, “Losing the first game motivated everyone to win the second. I feel like we meet our expectations coming in and we played hard in both games we just did not get the execution in the fist. Game two, we definitely gave 100 percent, and we played together for the seniors.”

“Our goal for the remainder of our season is just to finish as high in the conference as we can,” stated head coach Pam Knox. With the end of Western’s home games the lady Wolves will now hit the road to close out its 2012 regular season.

The Wolves will take on Western Washington on Wednesday, April 25 then head to Simon Fraser on Thursday for another doubleheader. Western will then return to Western Washington to take on the Vikings on Saturday, April 28 to complete its 2012 campaign.