PORTLAND, Ore. – The Western Oregon softball team earned a pair of wins and a series victory at Concordia Friday afternoon, defeating the host Cavaliers 6-1 in game one and 10-1 in the second game of the day. The Wolves improve to 19-16 overall with the two wins and neared the break-even mark in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference with a 6-8 mark in league play.
 
Senior infielder Destiny Kuehl went 3 for 7 in Friday's doubleheader, with every hit leaving the park for home runs, four runs scored and seven runs batted in. Senior Kelsie Gardner added four hits and junior Zoe Clark added a two-run homer.
 
GAME ONE – Western Oregon 6, Concordia 1
Two scoreless innings went by before Western Oregon plated three runs on two hits in the top of the third inning. Senior Mercedes Green singled to lead off the inning and fellow senior Emma Alfonso drew a walk to put two runners on base. Kuehl blasted her first homer of the day on the first pitch of the at-bat against Concordia's Mattie Boucher to left field. The Cavaliers took advantage of a leadoff walk as Kelsie Merritt hit a RBI single, giving the game a 3-1 score after three innings.
 
Kuehl provided the first insurance run in the top of the fifth with a sacrifice fly scoring Gardner. WOU added the final two runs of the game with Clark's home run with one out in the sixth inning with pinch runner Courtney Lau Hee aboard.
 
Freshman Chandler Bishop went the distance for Western Oregon allowing a run on six hits for her third victory of the year. Bishop helped her cause keeping the ball on the ground, inducing 12 groundouts. Boucher took the loss for the Cavaliers allowing six runs on seven hits over six innings of work.
 
GAME TWO – Western Oregon 10, Concordia 1
Kuehl got the scoring started in the top of the first with her second home run of the day, a two-run blast to center field. She completed the homer hat trick taking the second pitch of the fifth inning deep to left field for a solo shot.
 
Sophomore pitcher Haley Fabian retired the first nine batters she saw and worked out of jams in the fourth and fifth frames to keep the Cavaliers off the scoreboard. CU was able to take advantage of an error to plate an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth, making it a 3-1 game.
 
Western Oregon put the game out of reach scoring seven runs on six walks, one hit batter and an error on a pop-up on the infield that scored a pair of runs. The seven-run spurt was followed by a 1-2-3 frame from Fabian to end the doubleheader sweep and the series.
 
NOTES
- Fabian tossed her team-high eighth complete game of the year to improve to 8-7 overall. She surrendered one unearned run on five hits with two strikeouts and no walks.
 
- The Wolves outhit Concordia 17-11 on Friday.
 
- Western Oregon improves to 59-18 all-time against Concordia.
 
STAT OF THE DAY
4 – Western Oregon has four errors over the last 10 games. Six games have been error-free, including Friday's opener at CU.
 
NEXT UP
Western Oregon will play a two-game make up series on Monday, April 17, traveling to the Hillsboro Stadium Complex to face Simon Fraser. First pitch is set for 11 a.m.