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| Western's magical run ends in tourney finale |
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| The softball team can't solve Humboldt's Lizzy Prescott; the baseball team earns a regional bid. |
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 | | Photo by Sam Scott | | Brad Carter of Western Oregon delivers a pitch May 10 in a 3-2 win against Montana State Billings. |
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By Sam Scott
MONMOUTH -- A magical season ended for one softball team and a stunning turnaround continued for the other as Humboldt State defeated Western Oregon 9-0 May 11 in the championship final of the NCAA Division II West Region tournament.
The Lumberjacks earned a berth into this week's national tournament in Houston, improving to 53-18 in the process. Western's season comes to a close at 33-18.
The Wolves simply had no answer for Lumberjacks ace Lizzy Prescott on the weekend. On May 10, Humboldt State stayed alive via a 1-0 Prescott shutout. Prescott pitched a second shutout the following day and received a little more help from her team's offense.
The regional pitcher of the year scattered four hits in the title game. She walked four and fanned six.
The Lumberjacks put five runs on the board in the bottom of the first inning, three of them coming on Chrissy Motzny's three-run homer.
"When you get in a hole like that against a pitcher as good as Lizzy, it makes it very difficult to come back," said Wolves coach Pam Knox. "She was tough on us again today."
So were the Humboldt State hitters, who laced out 11 hits against the previously unblemished Katie Fleer. Four of those hits came in the five-run first inning, and four more came in the fateful sixth when HSU added four runs to mercy-rule the sixth-seeded Wolves. The game ended on Marissa Slattery's two-run double to left-center field.
Humboldt State lost consecutive games last week at the California Collegiate Athletic Association tournament and then dropped its regional opener 10-1 to eighth-seeded Cal State San Bernardino. But they followed that with six straight victories, including the back-to-back wins over WOU.
"They put it together at the right time, that's a testimony to a good program," Knox said. "We would have liked to have played better, but to be honest I am very proud of what we accomplished this year. Each win here was just icing on the cake to a very good season."
Jamie Becker had two of WOU's four hits. Fleer, who had a 0.56 ERA in the tournament prior to the championship, gave up six earned runs, all of them in the first and sixth innings.
Western set a school record for victories in a season in 2008 (33) and advanced to the tournament final in its first-ever regional appearance.
BASEBALL
The Wolves learned late May 11 their baseball season will continue. The NCAA Division II Baseball Committee placed Western fifth in the six-team West Regional Tournament, which will be hosted by Cal State Chico May 15-18.
Sonoma State is the tournament's No. 1 seed. The rest of the field is No. 2 UC-San Diego, No. 3 Cal State Chico, No. 4 Cal State Stanislaus and No. 6 Nebraska-Kearney.
Western finished regular-season play May 10 at home by splitting a double-header against Montana State-Billings. Billings won the opener 4-3, and the Wolves prevailed 3-2 in the second game when Dylan Bruck drove home Cesar Lopez with an eighth-inning single.
WOU finished the regular season with a 39-17 record. The Wolves won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship with a 24-8 mark.
Bruck, playing in his final game at the WOU Baseball Field, was two-for-four with a pair of RBIs and two stolen bases. He has a school-record 40 thefts on the season.
Lopez led off the extra inning for the Wolves by getting hit by a pitch. He advanced to second on a wild pitch, setting up Bruck's game winner.
Freshman Brad Carter made his first start of the season and pitched the first five innings, allowing three hits and no runs. He walked one and fanned four as the Wolves built a 2-0 lead.
But the Yellowjackets battled back when Carter left the game, eventually tying the contest in the seventh against WOU closer Jared Neyens.
In the first game, MSUB's Steve Scott went the nine-inning distance, scattering 10 hits. Western's Mike Cusick pitched the first eight innings and gave up seven hits, three earned runs and struck out eight.
MSUB then scored what would be the winning run in the top of ninth on singles by Bryce Thomas and Jef Ridgeway and an RBI grounder by Nick Harris.
WOU got runners to first and second in the bottom half of the inning, but Scott got Tyson Nelson to pop up to end the game.
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Western men's basketball coach Craig Stanger recently announced the signing of Mazama's Kolton Nelson and McMinnville's Kyle Long to National Letters of Intent.
Nelson is a 6-foot-8, 260-pound center. Long is a 6-foot-3, 175-pound guard.
"These are good team guys, players who will work hard and fit right in with our team's work ethic," Stanger said. "I am really pleased with the level of play that these guys bring to us."
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