CALDWELL, Idaho – The Western Oregon softball team closed out a non-conference series victory Sunday splitting a doubleheader with the College of Idaho. WOU dropped the first game after the Lady Yotes walked off with a 5-4 win, before beating COI, 12-1, in five innings.
 
Against the Lady Yotes in the first game Sunday, Western Oregon took advantage of four COI errors while being limited to the lowest hit total of any game in the series with five. Haley Fabian took the loss in the circle allowing two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning on two hits with a walk and a hit batter. Lizzet Dominguez tossed the first six innings scattering three runs, two earned, on seven hits while fanning one.
 
WOU struck first in the top of the first after Kelsie Gardner singled and advanced to third with two outs. After the Lady Yotes were unable to get Gabriella Alonso at second on a steal, Gardner scored on an error by the second baseman for a 1-0 lead.
 
COI got on the board with a run off Dominguez in the bottom of the first, but WOU took a 4-1 lead when Alonso scored in the third when a fly ball was dropped in the outfield, a RBI groundout by Ku'ulei Siolo in the fourth inning, and Zoe Clark RBI single in the sixth.
 
In the sixth, the College of Idaho scored twice on RBI groundouts cutting the Wolves' lead to 4-3 entering the final frame. With the bases loaded and out one in the final inning, Fabian induced a fly ball on the infield for the second out. On the very next pitch, a line drive off the wall in right-center bounded off the wall for a walk-off, two-run single.
 
The series finale saw the Wolves waste little time with four runs in support of freshman Chandler Bishop in the circle. Ashley Doyle plated Gardner with a one-out RBI single. The bases loaded on an error and with a hit batter, allowing Jenna Kelly to bring home three with a double into the gap in left-center for a 4-0 lead.
 
WOU broke it open with five runs in the fourth. Like most of the series, the Wolves use key hits and capitalized on errors for a big frame. Courtney Lau Hee reached on an error while Gardner and Cheyanne Rimer singled to the left side. The Wolves' first run scored when a throw home on a grounder to first base was mishandled at home, scoring Lau Hee. After a fly out, Ashlee Lynch pulled a grand slam to left-center to raise the WOU advantage to 9-0.
 
The Wolves padded their lead in the fifth with three more runs with a two-run double from Destiny Kuehl and a RBI two-bagger from Lynch, which accounted for her fifth run batted in of the game.
 
Bishop improved to 2-2 on the year allowing a run on six hits in five innings.
 
The Wolves will take a week away from competition before their home-opener against Simon Fraser on Saturday, March 11 at 12 p.m. in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference play. Live stats will be available at WOUWolves.com/Live.