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Box Score 2 NEWBERG, Ore. – Kayla Batastini homored twice and Chelsey Hayes hit a grand slam to lead visiting Whitworth to a 10-9 win and a split of a Northwest Conference softball doubleheader at George Fox on Friday, keeping the Pirates and Bruins tied atop the NWC standings. GFU won the opener 10-2 in six innings.
Both teams are now 14-4 in the NWC and they will complete the four-game series on Saturday. Whitworth is 23-7 overall, while 25th-ranked George Fox is 24-6.
Game 1 – George Fox 10, Whitworth 2 (6 innings)
Kayla Anderson went 4-4 to and scored three times lead the Bruins' 10-hit attack in the opener.
Hayes got Whitworth on the board first when she led off the game with a double and scored on Shannon Wessel's ground out to second base. But the Bruins answered back in the bottom of the first when Amanda Woods hit a two-run homer with two outs.
Sacha Clow's two-out double in the top of the second drove in Kelsey Stroshine and tied the game 2-2.
George Fox broke the game open with four runs in the bottom of the third. A single and double put runners on second and third to start the inning. The Bruins would not get another hit. Two errors, two walks and a hit batter led to the four runs.
Anderson doubled to lead off the bottom of the fourth and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly to increase the lead to 7-2.
GFU scored three more times in the bottom of the sixth inning to end the game on the eight-run rule. After the Bruins loaded the bases, another Whitworth error allowed two runs to score. Rebecca Pridemore's sacrifice fly drove in the final run.
Abbie Bergerson went the distance in the circle for GFU, allowing two runs on three hits to improve to 14-2. She struck out three and walked two.
Madi Perez fell to 11-4 for Whitworth. She allowed ten runs (five earned) on ten hits in 5.2 innings. She walked four and did not get a strikeout.
Game 2 – Whitworth 10, George Fox 9
The Pirates opened an 8-1 lead, watched the Bruins rally to go ahead 9-8, then scored the tying and winning runs in the top of the seventh inning. Whitworth hit three home runs in the game.
Hayes got the Pirates on the board first with her grand slam in the top of the fourth inning. It was her first home run of the season.
Anderson hit her seventh homer of the year to score George Fox's first run in the bottom of the third.
Megan John increased Whitworth's lead to 5-1 with an RBI double in the top of the fourth. Peyton McMahon hit her team-leading sixth home run of the season in the top of the fifth, then Batastini hit the first of her two round-trippers with a runner on to complete the three-run rally that gave the Bucs their 8-1 advantage.
GFU began its comeback in the bottom of the fifth. It began with Megan Furtado's grand slam home run that cut the margin to 8-5 and chased Whitworth starting pitcher Makayla Lefever.
The Bruins took the lead in the bottom of the sixth. After loading the bases GFU got four consecutive one-run singles to go in front 9-8.
Batastini's second homer of the game, her fifth of the season, tied the game in the top of the seventh. Shannon Wessel's two-out single drove in Hayes with the eventual winning run.
Perez, who came on in relief of Lefever, gave up a two-out single to Anderson in the bottom of the seventh. But she then got Woods to pop up to short stop to end the game.
Perez got the win in relief, improving to 12-4. She allowed four runs (three earned) on seven hits in 2.2 innings. Lefever got no decision. She gave up five runs on eight hits in 4.1 innings.
Batastini finished the game 3-4 with three RBI's and four runs scored. Wessel went 3-5.
Madison Sorenson started in the circle for George Fox and allowed eight runs on ten hits in six innings. But it was Bergerson (15-3) who took the loss after she gave up the two runs in the top of the seventh.
