BELLINGHAM, Wash. – After taking an 11-3 lead Wednesday against Western Washington, MSUB needed just six minutes to complete an 8-run mercy rule win against the Vikings Thursday afternoon.
 
MSU Billings (9-10, 2-2 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) scored 10 runs on 10 hits in the fourth inning and was up 11-3 over WWU Wednesday, but the game was halted due to darkness.
 
In the fourth inning MSUB catcher Brittney Sanders hit a double to left center. Second baseman Aubrey Conceicao hit a single to right field, advancing Sanders to third prompting a pitching change from Western Washington. MSUB's Kelsey Devlin advanced Sanders and Conceicao, but was thrown out at first. Emily Osborn came up for the Yellowjackets lining up a 2-run RBI single. Three singles in a row from Heather Tracy, Bella Rovens, and Cori Gammon gave MSUB a 5-2 lead and had WWU calling for another pitching change for the Vikings.
 
Shortstop Taylor Hoke hit the sixth single of the inning for MSUB scoring one, bringing Sanders back up to the plate. She hit her second double of the inning, scoring Gammon and Rovens for an 8-2 lead. Conceicao then struck her second single of the inning scoring two more. With two outs, Emily Osborn crushed the third double of the inning for MSUB sending Conceicao across home plate for the 10th run of the inning, giving MSUB an 11-2 lead.
 
Western Washington University (9-7, 2-2 GNAC) managed a run in the bottom of the fourth from an Autumn Isaacson single, but a double play from Hoke at shortstop ended the inning at one run.
 
Today the Yellowjackets and Vikings returned to the field where each team's pitcher faced four total batters. With two outs at the top of the fifth inning, Gammon doubled down the left field line, but was stranded when the next batter hit a ground ball to shortstop.
 
MSUB's Jessyka MacDonald also faced two batters. She got the first two Western Washington batters on pop-ups, sent the third batter to first base on a hit by pitch, but got the fourth batter on another pop-up to end the inning and the game.
 
The Yellowjackets outhit Western Washington 14-3. Gammon finished with a double, and Sanders and Osborn both had two in the game. Osborn, Conceicao, and Gammon were all 3-3 at the plate. Gammon was selected as the St. Vincent Healthcare Player of the Game. In the circle for MSUB, Mary Grace Bywater (2-1) faced 19 batters allowing seven hits and three runs for her second win of the season.
 
"I am proud of the team for finishing the game out," MSUB head coach Lisa Allen said. "Jessyka and Mary Grace did a great job holding WWU to three runs and our offense did very well adjusting to four different pitchers."
 
In Game 1, the Yellowjackets lost 5-4 in 11 innings, matching an MSUB record for longest game played by the program from 2009 when MSU Billings lost in 11 innings to Central Washington 3-2. Overall, MSU Billings leaves Bellingham with a 2-2 record in the team's opening GNAC series.
 
UP NEXT: MSU Billings travels to Lacey, Wash., for a 4-game series against Saint Martin's. First pitch is scheduled to be thrown Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific Time.