12th Ranked Softball Blasts Portland State

Thursday, April 12

Portland, Ore.

6:00 PM

University of Washington

1-0

Portland State

0-1

Washington

Portland State

April 12, 2007 | Softball

Box Score

By: Washington Athletics

April 12, 2007

Final Stats

PORTLAND - The 12th-ranked University of Washington softball team used a 14-strikeout performance from junior Caitlin Noble along with five Portland State errors to defeat the Vikings Thursday evening 6-1 at Erv Lind Stadium. The Huskies improve to 25-10 on the season, while PSU dips to 17-23.

The Huskies got on the scoreboard in the top of the second inning on two hits and an error. Junior Lauren Greer led off the frame with a single to left-centerfield and Alyson McWherter reached base on an error by the shortstop. Greer and McWherter successfully executed a double steal and an infield single by junior All-American Ashley Charters scored Greer to give Washington the 1-0 lead.

The Huskies tacked on three more runs in the third inning with two hits and three Viking errors. Dena Tyson and Danielle Lawrie sparked the rally with back-to-back walks and Greer followed with a deep fly ball to centerfield that was dropped allowing pinch runner Kristin Shumaker to score. McWherter kept the rally going when she beat out a two out infield single with a head first slide and picked up her first career RBI when pinch runner Sheila Reiten scored on the play. Senior Nicole Moojen, making her first appearance of the season, followed with a line drive to right field to score Greer and put UW on top 4-0.

Portland State finally broke through in the fifth inning when Stephanie Bean singled through the left side, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI-single by Kimi Daniel to cut Washington's lead to 4-1.

The Huskies added insurance runs in the sixth and seventh innings with a sacrifice fly by Tyson and a solo home run by freshman pinch hitter Amanda Fleischman. The homer marked Fleischman's first of the season and her second extra-base hit in the Purple and Gold.

Junior Caitlin Noble (10-3) earned the complete game victory as she held the Vikings to one run on six hits and fanned a season-high 14 batters. The total fell just shy of her career-best of 16 strikeouts set in 2005.

Janice Damo (0-4) took the loss as she gave up six runs on five hits and struck out five.

The Huskies return to Pac-10 action Friday with a 4 p.m. game against the Oregon Ducks. The game will be broadcast live on the Dawg Channel on GoHuskies.com via the ISP Sports Network.