MONMOUTH, Ore. – On a perfect day for softball, the Western Oregon University softball team celebrated their five seniors and played two games that went right down to the wire with Western Washington on Sunday. WOU tallied the only two runs in the first game to take the 2-0 victory and then game two went extra innings before the Vikings came back to gain the split with the 4-1 win in nine innings in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action. WOU honored their five seniors: Logan Carlos, Zoie Recolan, Maddie Brandner, Reilly Tidwell and Maddie Mayer before the game.

Maddie Mayer and Sydney Brown once again matched up in the first game of the day and runs were hard to come by.

WWU (27-20, 13-7 GNAC) threatened right away in the first inning and Mayer had the answer. With the first two runners reaching, Mayer tallied back-to-back fielder's choice outs before a strikeout left the runners stranded.

The Vikings were turned away by the WOU (21-25, 6-14 GNAC) defense in the second inning. Following a single by Macy Tarbox opened the inning, Lauren Lo followed with a double to left. Maddie Doig was able to hit the cutoff at short and Bella Valdes threw a strike to home plate allowing Natalie Willoughby to apply the tag to cut down the runner trying to score from first.

Mayer would go on to retire the next 14 batters and wouldn't allow a hit the rest of the way, with the only baserunner reaching on an error in the seventh that was quickly erased on the next pitch that turned into a double play.

WOU put a runner in scoring position in the second when Maddie Brandner hit a deep double to right, but Brown tallied a groundout to leave her stranded at second.

The Wolves scored the only two runs of the game in the third. Sophie Franklin opened the inning working a full-count walk. After stealing second, Valdes singled to pitcher to put runners at the corners. Valdes then stole second to put two runners in scoring position. Following an out, Doig hit a line drive to left-center that was caught, but turned into a sacrifice fly scoring Franklin. Zoie Recolan reached on a strikeout, wild pitch that also moved Valdes to third. That proved big as Willoughby followed with a single to right-center to score Valdes to push the lead to 2-0.

Mayer would cruise from there to pick up the complete game seven inning shutout victory (8-9) allowing just the three hits. She added six strikeouts and didn't walk a batter in throwing 83 pitches.

Willoughby led the offense with two hits and both Willoughby and Doig had the RBI hits. The teams combined for seven hits, four by WOU and there were three errors, two committed by the Wolves.

Three players had a hit for the Vikings. Brown took the loss (8-5) in the circle allowing just the two earned runs in throwing all seven innings. She added seven strikeouts.

Game two was another pitching battle between Reilly Tidwell and Kira Doan.

The first real threat to score came from the Vikings in the third. An error allowed the first baserunner to reach and after a single, a sacrifice bunt moved both runners into scoring position. A five-pitch walk then loaded the bases with one out. Tidwell worked around the jam getting a fielder's choice groundout to third that forced the out at home and then got a groundout to first to end the inning leaving the bases loaded.

WOU looked to take that momentum into the home half of the inning when Karly Tiedeman opened the frame with a single and after later getting forced out on a fielder's choice, Valdes stole second before a strikeout left the runner stranded.

Western Washington tallied the first run of the game in the fourth. Lo doubled and later moved to third before coming home on a fielding error. Tidwell minimized the damage leaving runners at first and second with a groundout to second.

WOU came right back in the home half to tie the game. Recolan opened the inning with a four-pitch walk. Hannah Stewart came on as a pinch-runner and moved to second on a Willoughby bunt single that just got past a diving third baseman looking to turn the play into a potential double play. Kirah McGlothan moved both up with a sacrifice bunt. After the second out was recorded, Kate Ronning delivered the clutch hit with a single to left to bring in the tying run. Doan left the potential go ahead run at third getting a pop out to end the inning.

WOU put two runners on in the fifth. With one out, Logan Carlos was hit-by-pitch and then moved to second on a groundout and later to third on a passed ball. Recolan walked before a groundout to third ended the threat to keep the game tied.

The game then moved into extra innings and WOU was threatening to walk it off in the eighth. Recolan opened the frame with a single. After a fielder's choice out left Willoughby at first with one out, McGlothan singled to third base moving pinch-runner Franklin to second. Doan came through with a strikeout and fly out to center to extend the game into the ninth.

In the top of the ninth, WWU started a one-out rally with a single and walk before Kanilehua Pitoy had the big hit with a double to deep left to bring in the go-ahead run. Chantelle Shimabukuro added a pair of insurance runs with a single to left to score two and push the lead to 4-1.

Doan was able to keep WOU off the bases in the bottom of the inning with a groundout, fly out and line out to give WWU the 4-1 victory.

WWU held the 7-5 edge in hits and the teams combined for three errors, two committed by WOU. Recolan, Willoughby, McGlothan, Ronning and Tiedeman all had a hit for WOU and Ronning added the RBI. In the circle, Tidwell went all nine innings to end up with the tough-luck loss (3-6) allowing four runs (three earned), along with seven strikeouts.

Kinzey Williams led the Vikings with two hits and Shimabukuro drove in two runs. In the circle, Doan went all nine innings for the win (11-7) allowing the one earned run with eight strikeouts.

With the split this weekend, WOU remains alive for a possible GNAC Championships spot, but it will all come down to the final weekend. WOU is three games behind Central Washington for the fourth and final spot, meaning the Wolves would have to win all four games to pass the Wildcats in the standings. Simon Fraser also remains alive with eight wins in conference play and will play at Northwest Nazarene this week. SFU holds the tiebreaker against WOU if the teams were to end up tied in the standings. If all three teams tie, then it will go to the records each team had against each other throughout the season.

WOU will close the regular season this coming Saturday and Sunday at Central Washington in Ellensburg with doubleheaders each day starting at 1 p.m.