Maldonado Delivers Walk-Off Grand Slam for NU
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.
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.
"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."
Northwest scored first in the opener. Kayla Stanley singled, stole second and third, and scored on a fielder's choice by Jessica Nunes.
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.
Alexa Berry tied it again for the Beacons with a two-run double in the third.
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.
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.
Bushnell scored twice in the ninth on a sacrifice fly by Cardwell and an RBI single by Faith Wayman.
Northwest scored twice in the bottom of the ninth, with sacrifice flies by Nunes and Nicola Fish.
Bushnell stranded two runners in the top of the 10th.
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.
Abby Brake tossed five innings of relief to get the win.
Caron led NU's 11-hit attack with four hits, while Stanley, Nunes, and Jordan Dippel added two each.
Mendez had four hits, and Alyssa Ferreira added three for the Beacons.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A pair of errors helped Bushnell score three runs in the seventh, with Mendez getting a two-run double.
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.
Sam Silver got the win, with Leslie Reynaga picking up her first save. Maurer took the loss.
The Eagles had 10 hits, including two each by Caron, Stanley, Maldonado, and Fish. Nunes and Oswald had one each.
Kuykendall had three hits to lead Bushnell.
The teams meet for a 1 p.m. doubleheader to finish the season on Sunday.