Western Oregon Blanks Cal State Stanislaus

Katie Fleer improved to 20-5 on the year and tossed her fourth shutout of the season.

Katie Fleer tossed a six-hit shutout and laced two hits to help her own cause as the Western Oregon Wolves moved to 2-0 in the NCAA Division II west region softball championships with a 4-0 victory over Cal State Stanislaus.

ARCATA, Calif. - Katie Fleer tossed a six-hit shutout and laced two hits to help her own cause as the Western Oregon Wolves moved to 2-0 in the NCAA Division II west region softball championships with a 4-0 victory over Cal State Stanislaus.

WOU, the No. 6 seed in the tournament, advances to Friday's 2 p.m. game against the winner of the 5 p.m. game between Cal State Dominguez Hills and Cal State San Bernardino. The match-up will pit the only two unbeaten teams in the tournament against each other.

Western's victory over the No. 2 seeded Warriors (31-22) improved their record to 32-16 on the season, and snapped CSUS's 18-game road winning streak. Cal State Stanislaus, the 2008 CCAA tournament champion and defending west region champion, will play in Friday's 9 a.m. loser-out game against host Humboldt State.

"We are just playing great softball right now," said Wolves head coach Pam Knox. "Katie (Fleer) is hitting her spots, we are getting hits from nearly everyone in the line-up and we are playing solid defense. We are playing relaxed, we are in a good place right now."

The Wovles got on the board in the third inning when Jessica Hallmark looped a single to centerfield to score Tyler Sutherland. WOU then blew the game open in the fifth inning with three runs on four hits and a Warrior error. RBI singles by Trina Dorn and Amanda Fleer, and a run-scoring double by Katie Fleer gave the Wolves more than enough runs to win their 16th win in their last 18 outings.

Katie Fleer improved to 20-5 on the year and tossed her fourth shutout of the season. She did not walk a batter and she fanned six.

"Katie pitched great again, and she also hit the ball which is also a bonus," Knox said.

Sutherland, Kristin Maglasang and the Fleer sisters had two hits each in WOU's 10-hit attack. Kimiko Wright had two hits to lead the Warriors.

Western Oregon is now two wins away from advancing to the NCAA Division II Sports Festival in Houston, Texas (May 14-17).

"We are just taking it a game at a time," Knox said. "We are not looking ahead, we do best when we just take things a pitch at a time."

Adding comments to these stories has been disabled. View the current sports stories Salem-News Sports