Senior Emily Benson continues to rewrite WWU’s record books with a 6-for-7 performance on Saturday with 8 RBI. PHOTO: WWU Athletics
Vikings Continue Winning Ways at the Tournament
of Champions
March 31, 2019
TURLOCK, Calif. – The Western Washington University softball team continued its winning ways at the Tournament of Champions, combining to outscore its two opponents on Saturday 20-1 in a pair of wins at the Pedretti Sports Complex.
WWU opened the afternoon with a 13-1 victory over Dominican (CA) and then shutout perennial West Coast power Cal State Monterey Bay 7-0 in the nightcap. WWU’s pitching by senior starters Shearyna Labasan and Makinlee Sellevold combined to allow only one unearned run and 10 hits over 14.0 innings.
Western is now 21-9 on the season and have won eight of its last nine, and 16 of its last 20 games.
Senior first baseman Emily Benson continued her All-America-caliber season going 6-for-7 with 3 runs scored, 3 doubles, one home run (13th of the season, 44th of career) and 8 RBI. In the game vs. Dominican she tied WWU single-game records with 5 hits and 7 RBI, going 5-for-5. Benson is now batting .478 (44-for-92) with 30 runs scored, 9 doubles, 1 triple, 13 home runs and 42 RBI in 30 games this season. She has a 1.022 slugging percentage and 1.585 OPS.
Junior Paityn Cyr went 5-for-8 with a double and 3 RBI and Sellevold and junior outfielder Seli Aholelei each had 3-hit games. Overall the Vikings out-hits the Penguins and Otters 25-10 in the two games.
WWU is 4-0 in the Tournament of Champions, joining UC San Diego, Cal State Dominguez Hills and Sonoma State as the only undefeated teams in the 27-team tournament.
The Vikings close out play in the Tournament of Champions on Sunday facing Cal State East Bay at 10 am at the Turlock Regional Sports Complex (Field 1).
ALL-TIME GNAC HOME RUNS
Emily Benson hit her 13th home run of the season on Saturday, the 44th of her career to pull to within one homer of the all-time GNAC record held by Jessica Hallmark of Western Oregon (2008-11).
UP NEXT FOR THE VIKS
WWU (21-9) closes out the tournament Sunday against Cal State East Bay (10 am) and then returns home to Bellingham. Following the TOC, WWU will begin the second half of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference season with road contests at Saint Martin’s in Lacey (Saturday, April 6) and Central Washington in Ellensburg (Sunday, April 7). WWU heads into the second half of conference play in 2nd place in the standings with an 11-3 record, narrowly trailing first-place CWU (10-2).
-- WWU Softball --
