Bellingham, WA - The Simon Fraser University softball team visited their cross border rivals, the Western Washington University Vikings on
Thursday afternoon, earning a split in Bellingham.
The Clan took game one 4-2 before dropping game two 4-1.
Cara Lukawesky (Coquitlam, BC) got the start and went the distance for SFU in game one, throwing seven strong innings, scattering seven hits and allowing two runs.
Carly Lepoutre (Pickering, ON) had a hit, a run batted in and a run scored for the Clan while
Kaitlyn Cameron (Langley, BC) went three for four with an RBI and
Mackenzie Bender (St. Albert, AB) had two RBI's and one hit in a pinch hit appearance.
Western Washington opened the scoring with a run in the third inning and another in the fourth to take a 2-0 lead.
They held the lead until the top of the sixth inning when SFU put four on the board.
With one out in the sixth,
Rosie Murphy singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch before moving to third on an
Alex Baylak (Regina, SK) single.
Murphy was retired at the plate on a fielder's choice that
Nicole Ratel (Langley, BC) reached on leaving runners on first and second with two outs.
Bender came in to pinch hit and came through for SFU with a double to right field that scored both runners, tying the game.
After
Lauren Kolanko (North Vancouver, BC) came in to pinch run for Bender, Lepoutre singled to score Kolanko to give the Clan the 3-2 lead.
SFU would add one more in the inning and eventually take the 4-2 game one victory.
"I was pleased to see us get our bats going in the first game although it did not show up in the scoring," said Head Coach
Mike Renney. "Any time you can get into the double digits in hits it is a good sign."
"I felt Cara pitched well enough to earn the victory but we still needed some late game heroics from
Mackenzie Bender's pinch hit double that drove in the first two runs to tie the game. She did not look good early in her at bat but fouled a couple of tough pitches off to stay alive long enough to get the pitch she was looking for, taking it off the right field fence."
Kelsie Hawkins (Victoria, BC) started for the Clan in game two, allowing four runs over six innings of work, three of which were earned. She struck out five in the game.
Danielle Raison (Langley, BC) was the only Clan player with a multi hit game, going two for three while Cameron went one for three with an RBI and
Rachel Kolanko (North Vancouver, BC) scored SFU's only run.
Western Washington opened the scoring with a single run in the bottom of the first and SFU responded with one in the third.
The Vikings added two in the fifth and one in the sixth to take a 4-1 lead before shutting down the Clan offence in the top of the seventh to take the win.
"In game two we played with little emotion, knowing the spilt was in hand, not something I was looking for but having just wrapped two weeks of finals our athletes are clearly tired and will hopefully catch up on sleep on the road to Montana," finished Renney.
With the split, the Clan's record moves to 13-8 on the season in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play and 23-20 overall.
SFU will now travel to Billings, MT where the Clan will finish off their 2013 GNAC schedule with three games against Montana State University Billings on
Saturday - a regularly scheduled doubleheader and the completion of a suspended game from earlier this season.
The Clan enter their final three contests in third place in the GNAC. The top four teams in the conference will make the post season tournament.
