BELLEVUE – Northwest got a walk-off grand slam, honored last season's senior class, saw a couple of records tied or broken, and ended the playoff aspirations of Bushnell with a split Saturday.
Â
The Eagles won 11-7 in 10 innings in the opener before a late rally came up short in an 8-6 loss to close the day.
Â
"We hit the ball well, and we kept fighting every inning," said NU Head Coach Pam Fink. "That first game was a thriller, the way we kept coming back. The second game was a tough one, but we kept scrapping to the last out."
Â
Northwest scored first in the opener. Kayla Stanley singled, stole second and third, and scored on a fielder's choice by Jessica Nunes.
Â
Anna Cardwell tied it in the second with an RBI groundout. NU scored one run on an error, and Sammi Caron tacked on an RBI single for a 3-1 lead in the second.
Â
Alexa Berry tied it again for the Beacons with a two-run double in the third.
Â
Anabel Mendez launched a two-run home run to give Bushnell a 5-3 lead in the fifth inning, but Stanley answered with a solo home run to make it 5-4 in the home half of the inning.
Â
Caron homered to lead off the seventh to make it a 5-5 game and sent the Eagles to their first extra-inning game since the last day of the 2020 season.
Â
Bushnell scored twice in the ninth on a sacrifice fly by Cardwell and an RBI single by Faith Wayman.
Â
Northwest scored twice in the bottom of the ninth, with sacrifice flies by Nunes and Nicola Fish.
Â
Bushnell stranded two runners in the top of the 10th.
Â
Sydney Maurer was hit by a pitch, and with two outs, Caron singled, and Stanley was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Alyssa Maldonado ripped the first pitch of her at-bat over the left-field fence for the walk-off grand slam.
Â
Abby Brake tossed five innings of relief to get the win.Â
Â
Caron led NU's 11-hit attack with four hits, while Stanley, Nunes, and Jordan Dippel added two each.Â
Â
Mendez had four hits, and Alyssa Ferreira added three for the Beacons.
Â
Bushnell needed to sweep the series to reach the postseason.
Between games, NU recognized 2020 seniors Alexis Contreras, Rachel Hawley, Laurissa Lee, Yeawa Asabi, and Carly Tighe.
Â
Mendez had a three-run home run in the first inning of the second game, and the Beacons went up 5-0 in the third with a home run by Jordan Kuykendall and a sacrifice fly by Kerry Murphy.
Â
Maldonado singled ahead of a two-run home run by Nunes in the fourth, giving Nunes a school-record 27th RBI this season and a record-tying eighth home run. Contreras held the RBI record, and Nunes shares the home run record with Katelyn Riedinger.
Â
Caron doubled and scored on a base hit by Stanley in the fifth to make it 5-3, and Maldonado singled to make it a 5-4 game.
Â
A pair of errors helped Bushnell score three runs in the seventh, with Mendez getting a two-run double.
Â
Caron ripped her second home run of the day after Ashley Oswald had walked to make it an 8-6 game. NU got the tying runs on base but couldn't get one more big hit.
Â
Sam Silver got the win, with Leslie Reynaga picking up her first save. Maurer took the loss.
Â
The Eagles had 10 hits, including two each by Caron, Stanley, Maldonado, and Fish. Nunes and Oswald had one each.
Â
Kuykendall had three hits to lead Bushnell.
Â
The teams meet for a 1 p.m. doubleheader to finish the season on Sunday.
Â