BURNABY, B.C. – In closing out a six-game weekend road trip, the Western Oregon softball squad split a Great Northwest Athletic Conference with Simon Fraser on Sunday at Beedie Field. The Wolves lost game one, 4-0, while taking the second game, 8-7.
 
The split moves Western Oregon to 24-19 overall and 11-11 in the GNAC, while Simon Fraser moves to 9-29 overall and 5-17 in the league.
 
GAME ONE
Game one saw Western Oregon's offense limited against the Clan's Tori Belton. The Wolves tallied only three hits and had only one runner reach third base in the game.
 
Simon Fraser scored twice in the second inning with one hit and two WOU errors and tacked on two more runs on a single by Katherine Murnagahan. Belton (5-11) pitched the complete game victory for the Clan, earning the three-hit shutout with four strikeouts.
 
Lizzet Dominguez (3-4) took the loss for the Wolves, giving up four runs (two earned) on five hits in six innings, walking two and striking out one.
 
GAME TWO
Sunday's second game saw the Wolves get out to an 8-0 lead before the host Clan clawed back with the tying run on base in the seventh before Haley Fabian closed out a hard-fought victory.
 
Jenna Kelly put Western Oregon on the board in the top of the first inning with a three-run home run, her second of the season.
 
The Wolves sent eight batters to the plate in a four-run fourth inning, highlighted by a RBI double from Emma Alfonso and a two-run home run from Cheyanne Rimer, number two on the year, to left field.
 
Mercedes Green blasted the Wolves' third homer of the game leading off the sixth to build the lead to 8-0.
 
Simon Fraser answered with a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth and blasted two homers in a five-run seventh inning, including a grand slam from Chelsea Hotner, before falling a run short. Fabian saw the tying run reach on a two-out error, but got Murnaghan to ground out to Gardner at short for the final out.
 
Fabian (11-7) picked up her third win of the weekend, striking out eight SFU batters. Rimer, Destiny Kuehl and Green each had two hits for Western Oregon in game two.
 
NEXT
Western Oregon will play a midweek doubleheader at Saint Martin's on Wednesday (April 26) at 1 p.m. The Wolves are expected to play at home next on Friday (April 29) against the Saints and Saturday (April 30) facing league-leading Central Washington.