The 18th-ranked Seattle University softball team held off Central Washington in its first game of the day, 4-3, to extend its school-record winning streak to 11 games, but then suffered its first loss of the season as Western Oregon earned a 5-1 victory over the Redhawks Saturday at the Clarion Hotel Central Washington Invitational at Columbia Playfields.
Central Washington (3-8) jumped on top in the first inning on a long home run to center field by Mallory Holtman, but SeattleU answered back in the next inning when Lauren Berin (Lacey, Wash.) hit her own shot to center field to tie the game. In the third inning, after Katie Antich (, ) and Cassie Cueto (, ) reached base, Katie Petersen () laid down a sacrifice bunt that was misplayed, allowing Antich to score. After Petersen stole second, Megan MacIsaac (, ) singled to drive in Cueto, followed by a single by Jane Purdy () that scored Petersen and gave SeattleU a 4-1 lead.
The Wildcats answered in the bottom of the third inning when, with a runner on, Holtman hit another home run off Erin Martin () to cut the Redhawk lead to one. Martin allowed only a walk after the home run until there were two outs in the seventh inning, when put together three bloop hits to load the bases. Jackie Hawkins hit another bloop into short left field, but MacIsaac hustled and made an over-the-shoulder catch to end the inning and the game.
In SeattleU’s second game of the day, (6-2) took the lead in the second inning, as an error, a wild pitch, a walk, and a ground out put runners on second and third for Whitney Lee, who doubled in both runners. The Redhawks cut the lead in half in the bottom of the second when Kaha Weir () hit a home run to left center field.
The Wolves extended their lead in the fourth inning on a two-run home run by Laura Safley, and then scored again in the sixth inning when Lee hit a triple to center field to score pinch runner Melissa Powell. Western Oregon earned ten hits off SeattleU pitcher Kelsey Reynolds (), who suffered her first loss of the year.
Although SeattleU only earned three hits, two of them by Weir and the other from Antich, ten Redhawk runners were left on base as the Wolves committed five errors and pitcher Katie Fleer walked two batters and hit another one. The loss snapped ’s season-opening 11-game winning streak and gave the inside track to the tournament title.
(11-1) finishes play in the Central Washington Invitational Sunday morning against Montana State Billings at 8:30 a.m. It is the first four straight scheduled games against the Yellowjackets, who will come to Seattle for a three-game series next weekend, starting with a conference doubleheader next Saturday, March 8, beginning at 11 a.m. at Logan Field.