By: Ryan Lackey

TACOMA, Wash. --- George Fox softball team split a pair of games Sunday, as the Bruins fell in a tight game one, but opened up game two in dominating fashion.

Game 1

Reliever Madison Sorensen and the Bruins suffered another hard-luck loss in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader, as hosts Pacific Lutheran walked off in the eighth inning after the Bruins had scored seven in the sixth to take the lead. In an undoubtedly offensive game, both Kat Hylton and Ashley Bunce hit longballs for the Bruins – Bunce's a grand slam. Hylton overall finished 2-5 with two RBIs, and Bunce went 2-4 and knocked in four. Alex Parker, Julia Apodaca, and Amanda Woods all rapped out two hits and scored once apiece.

Starter Abbie Bergerson went five and two-thirds for the Bruins, giving up eight runs, only two earned.

Emily McConnell had a standout day for Linfield, going a perfect 4-4 at the dish.

Before their big sixth inning, the game went poorly for the Bruins. Pacific Lutheran took an early lead in the first on a single and a fielder's choice, and after Hylton raced home on an error in the fourth to snag a run back, the Lutes tacked on three more on Crysti Snyder's three-run homer.

Trailing 5-1, the Bruins came suddenly and drastically alive in the sixth. Alex Parker and Apodaca singled to open the inning, and Courtney Howard was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Bunce. Picking out a good pitch, Bunce blasted a grand slam to tie the game. After Amanda Woods lined a single, Veatch rapped another single to center, and Woods came flying around from first to score and take the lead. Hylton, with Veatch on first, then crushed her own homer, and the Bruins took a 8-5 lead into the eighth.

In the bottom of the sixth, though, Pacific Lutheran tied the game in turn; after a walk forced in one run, Tori Hamura doubled in two more.

With neither team able to push across a winning run in the seventh, the game went into extra innings. The Bruins left two runners on base in the top of the eighth, which proved costly. The Lutes' Emily McConnell doubled in Thalen Masada to give Pacific Lutheran a 9-8 victory.

The loss meant the Bruins stood at 26-9 before Sunday's second game.

Game 2

After a good team effort came up short in the first game of Sunday's doubleheader, the Bruins left nothing to chance in the second game with Pacific Lutheran, collecting 19 hits as part of a 14-3 victory. The Bruins' box score was filled with crooked numbers: Kayla Anderson knocked her eighth home run of the season and went 2-4 with three RBIs. Julia Apodaca and Amanda Woods both ended the day 3-5 with a pair of RBIs, and Ashley Bunce had three hits and drove in two runs.

Especially notable was Amanda Lewis, who, after pinch-hitting in the seventh, homered on her first official at-bat of the season.

Madison Sorensen got the win, throwing four innings of clever two-run ball.

After the Bruins scored twice in the first, thanks to Woods and Hylton, the Lutes immediately tied the game on Emily McConnell's – who walked off in the first game – long homer. Pacific Lutheran, though, would not threaten again. In the third, the Bruins pulled away for good: Alex Parker singled in the first run, and Courtney Howard the second. Ashley Bunce did one better, driving in two runs on her sizzling drive to left-center, and the Bruins took a 6-2 lead into the fourth.

Amanda Woods singled in one run in the fourth, and Apodaca doubled in another during the fifth, as the Bruins piled on runs.

After two relatively quiet innings, Julia Apodaca reignited things in the seventh, doubling in one run before the next batter, Anderson, jumped all over her three-run homer. A few batters later, pinch-hitter Amanda Lewis, making her season debut, caught hold of a delivery and launched it; her two-run bomb made the score 10-2.

The Lutes scored a single run in the bottom of the seventh to make the final score, 10-3.

With the victory, the Bruins carry a 27-9 record – 17-7 in conference – into Saturday's doubleheader with Pacific.