SALEM, Ore. – Establishing a new single-season record for wins with 22, the George Fox University Bruins smothered the Willamette University Bearcats 14-5 in the first game of a Northwest Conference softball doubleheader Wednesday afternoon here at the WU softball field, tightening the race for berths in the NWC Tournament.

The second game was suspended by darkness with two out in the top of the 7th with the Bruins ahead 9-2 and batting with the bases loaded.  No completion date has been decided upon. The games were makeups of a rained-out doubleheader from Mar. 2.

George Fox improved to 22-12 overall and 11-11 in the conference, while Willamette fell to 16-15 overall and 12-9 in the league, a game-and-a-half ahead of the Bruins for the fourth and final spot in the conference tournament.  The Bruins surpassed their previous high for wins in a season set by the 1994 team which went 21-8 and won both the Northwest Conference of Independent Colleges and NAIA District 2 titles. 

Game 1 - George Fox 14, at Willamette 5

Felicia Chavez led a 15-hit George Fox attack in the opener with a 4-for-5 game, slamming two home runs and driving in five.  She was joined in the hit parade by Kayla Anderson, who had three hits with a home run, three RBIs and three runs scored, and Kat Hylton, Amanda Woods, and Baylee Westrick, who each had two hits.  Hylton had two doubles and scored three times.

Chavez and Anderson got the Bruins going with solo home runs in the top of the 1st, the fourth of the season for Chavez and fifth for Anderson.  Chavez singled in Becca Olson in the 2nd, and Woods singled in Hylton, who had doubled, for another run in the 5th. 

Leading only 4-2 heading into the 6th, the Bruins salted the game away with a pair of five-run innings.  Chavez slugged a three-run homer, her fifth, for the first runs in the 6th, and Anderson added an RBI single, followed by a run-scoring double by Woods.  In the 7th, Anderson singled in a run, Hylton scored on a wild pitch, Westrick had an two-run single, and Kelsey Hansen closed the scoring with an RBI double.

Allyssa DenDekker went the first two-plus innings for the Bruins on the mound, giving up four hits but only one unearned run while struggling with her control as she walked four.  Erin Hento (12-6) took over and pitched four innings, giving up three hits and a run while striking out five with no walks.  Amanda Woods pitched the 7th and was touched for three runs before securing the final out.

Willamette collected 11 hits, led by Amanda Absher's 3-for-3 with a solo home run.  Jenna King, Victoria Bradshaw, and Alexia Pratt had two hits each, Bradshaw doubling in a pair in the 7th.

Game 2 - George Fox 9, at Willamette 2 (suspended)

The Bruins banged out 14 more hits in the suspended nightcap, but the statistics will not go into the record books until the game is finished.

Anderson blasted her second home run of the day and sixth of the season with Chavez aboard on an error in the 1st to give the Bruins the early lead again.  In the 2nd, Anderson doubled in a pair and Woods followed with an RBI single.  Westrick doubled, advanced on a wild pitch, and scored on a single by Ashley Bunce in the 3rd.  Megan Furtado drilled a two-run single in the 5th, and the Bruins scored again in the 6th on singles by Hylton, Woods, and Courtney Howard.

DenDekker went the first five innings and was in line for the win, spacing four hits with a strikeout and four walks.  Only one of the two runs she allowed was earned.  Hento worked the 6th, giving up one hit with a strikeout.  Hayley Glantz, the first of three Bearcat pitchers, stood to be the loser, having allowed six hits and six runs, five earned, with four strikeouts and two walks in two-plus innings.

NEXT: George Fox hosts Lewis & Clark College Friday in a 5:00 p.m. that will complete four makeup games from a series that was rained out on Feb. 8-9 … Willamette goes to league-leading Linfield College Saturday for a 12;00 noon.