BELLEVUE – Northwest had a walk-off sacrifice fly and banged out 11 hits in both games of a split with Carroll College Saturday at Bellevue High School.
 
Carroll won the opener 9-6 before the Eagles got their initial win of the season, 7-6.
 
"We hit the ball well today," said NU Head Coach Pam Fink. "We're getting better every day. We needed a few more hits in that first game, but I was proud of the way our ladies handled adversity in the second game."
 
Jessica Nunes went 4-for-4 with two home runs in the opener. Sammi Caron added a home run and, along with Jordan Dippel and Starlynn Ripley, had two hits.
 
Dippel singled, stole second, and scored on a single by Caron in the first inning, and Nunes added an RBI double in the first inning for a 2-0 lead.
 
Carroll scored eight runs in the fifth, including a grand slam by Kaitlynn Ayers and a three-run double by Jessica Nimmo.
 
Caron homered in the fourth, and Nunes followed suit with her first of the game in the fifth. Nunes homered again to collect her third and fourth RBIs of the game in the seventh.
 
The Eagles led 4-0 after the first inning of the second game. Ripley had an RBI fielder's choice, and Alyssa Maldonado added a three-run double.
 
CC tied the score in the second, but NU went ahead 5-4 in the fourth when Maldonado doubled and scored on an error. The Eagles took a 6-4 lead in the fifth on a Ripley sacrifice fly that plated Dippel.
 
Nimmo singled home two runs in the top of the seventh, and the Saints just missed taking a two-run lead when Amber Brewer's deep drive bounced off the top of the fence and back into play for a double.
 
Winning pitcher Becca Rennick got a strikeout to work out of a bases-loaded jam with the game tied.
 
Caron led off the bottom of the seventh with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice by Nicola Fish. Caron took third on a base hit by Nunes and scored on a second sacrifice fly by Ripley.
 
Nunes had three hits in the game, with Maldonado and Dippel adding two each. Ripley and Maldonado had three RBIs apiece.
 
Rennick got the win in relief, getting four strikeouts in 3.2 innings.
 
The same two teams match up again Sunday at 1 p.m.