Back-to-Back PacWest Champs for Softball as they Sweep Dominican

Winning Streak Extended to 21 games

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SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – For the second straight season the Dixie State University softball team won the Pacific West regular season title. This year they needed to come from behind in each of their final two games to defeat Dominican (CA) University 4-2 in nine innings in the opener and 9-6 in the season finale.

The Red Storm (44-8/27-5 PWC) extended their winning streak to 21-games and locked up a share of the title with California Baptist who has two games remaining this week at Holy Names.

Trailing 2-0 heading into their last at bats in the opener, Autumn Woodfall (Kaysville, UT/Davis High School) drew a leadoff walk and Nicole Chavez (Chino Hills, CA/Ayala High School) followed with an infield single to the shortstop. Both runners would advance on a wild pitch and Courtney Sherwin (Mesa, AZ/Red Mountain High School) lined a two RBI single to right field to score the equalizer and force extra innings.

After a scoreless eighth for both teams, Courtney Hine (San Dimas, CA/San Dimas High School) led the ninth inning with a double down the third base line and Rochelle Jenkins (Mira Loma, CA/Roosevelt High School) followed by reaching on a Penguin (23-26/13-15 PWC) error that scored the go ahead run. DSU was the benefactor of a second DUC error that extended the lead to 4-2.

Aryn Feickert (Lancaster, CA/Highland ) pitched all nine innings for DSU, allowing just one earned run, allowing six hits to improve to 20-6 on the season.

Chavez extended her hitting streak to 27-games with a double in the third inning; it was one of her two hits on the day.

After sneaking by the Penguins in the first game, DSU needed to win the finale in order to get a piece of the PacWest title. But, the Dominican had different ideas as they jumped on Red Storm starter Michelle Duncan (Gilbert, AZ/Gilbert High School) with a run in the bottom of the first inning.

DSU responded in the fourth when Reiter drew a walk and Gelter doubled her home to even the score.

The Penguins regained the lead in the fifth inning when the Red Storm committed two errors and took a 3-1 lead.

With their back against the wall in the sixth, Chavez and Hine led the inning with a pair of walks. Sherwin, who didn't finish game one or start game two due to needing stiches in her left hand after being stepped on in the seventh inning of game one, singled to hit an RBI single to left field scoring Chavez. Reiter followed with a sacrifice bunt to move the runners into scoring position and Gelter singled to left field for two RBI and give DSU a 4-3 lead.

Budge followed to give the Red Storm a 5-3 lead on an RBI single to left field.

DSU added four more runs in the seventh inning on and RBI groundout from Sherwin and a two RBI single from Autumn Woodfall (Kaysville, UT/Davis High School) to extend the lead to 9-3.

Duncan pitched her eighth complete game of the season and improved to 15-1. She allowed five runs, three earned on eight hits to finish the regular season with a 1.52 ERA.

The Storm will await the final West Region poll on April 30 and then the top eight teams in the final West Region poll (to be announced live on NCAA.com on May 5) will advance to the NCAA West Regionals May 9–11 at sites to be determined. The top two teams will have the inside track to host the two subregionals. The winners of the subregionals will play a best 2–of–3 West Super Regional for the right to advance to the NCAA Division II College World Series May 22–26 at the Moyer Sports Complex in Salem, Va.

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