NNU falls to Cal State Dominguez Hills in regional final

NAMPA — Mariah Ramirez was a thorn in Northwest Nazarene’s side all weekend.

The senior pitcher for Cal State Dominguez Hills shut down the Nighthawks lineup on Friday, holding them to three hits in a 2-0 win to advance to the west regional final. After Northwest Nazarene avoided elimination with a win over Saint Martin’s later on Friday, Ramirez and the Toros awaited them on Saturday.

Not only did she hold the Nighthawks to one run across seven innings, she added two RBI from the plate — including a home run — to end Northwest Nazarene’s season in the west region final. Cal State Dominguez Hills won 3-1, advancing to the super regionals next weekend.

The Nighthawks (41-12) entered the day needing two wins to advance.

“This weekend, it was tough,” Northwest Nazarene head coach Rich Wagner said about facing Ramirez. “She did a great job of mixing it up, staying on the outer half. She was doing a good job of keeping us off balance. Especially in those key moments where we had runners on base, she was able to get out of it.”

Ramirez pitched all seven innings Saturday with six strikeouts. Across both games, she tossed 14 innings with 16 strikeouts, 10 hits and zero earned runs.

Three of the four runs in the game came in the first inning. Ramirez hit a solo home run to left-center field to put the Toros on the board. Three batters later, Mireya Rico batted in another run with an RBI-single through the left side of the infield, giving Cal State Dominguez Hills (37-20) a 2-0 lead in the top of the first.

There was some hope in the bottom of the first that Saturday’s contest would be different from Friday’s for Northwest Nazarene. They recorded three hits off Ramirez in the frame — equalling the total they had against her on Friday — and scoring a run. Abby Gagnon sent a ball down the right field line with Clarissa Moreno at first base. Moreno scored on the play with an error on the throw to third base trying to tag her out. The Nighthawks cut the deficit to 2-1.

But there could have been another run on the board if not for a controversial call earlier in the inning — the first of two pivotal rulings by the umpire crew.

Before Gagnon’s hit, Sidney Booth flew out to left field. Tagging up on the play from second to third base was Emma Mulligan. She originally was ruled to have tagged up on time, but after a conversation between the umpires, they ruled Mulligan ran too early, and she was out. The Cal St Dominguez Hills defense made sure to throw the ball back to second base in order to appeal the call.

However, a decision by the home plate umpire cost the Nighthawks a run in the bottom of the fifth, down 3-1. With the bases loaded and two outs, Gagnon was up to bat. In her plate appearance, Ramirez had a pitch hit her leg, but the umpire ruled Gagnon leaned into the pitch. Instead of taking first base and sending a run home, Gagnon ended her at-bat with a groundout to third base.

Not only did it keep a run off the board, it took away another at-bat for Northwest Nazarene with the bases loaded.

“We’re a little battle-tested in that. It was a strange game, some strange things happened,” Wagner said. “I would say we’ve dealt with stuff all year long. We have to keep going and doing it.”

Down to their last three outs in the bottom of the seventh, Northwest Nazarene managed to get one runner on with Mulligan hitting a double with two outs. Moreno came to the plate representing the tying run, but popped up to left field.

The Toros were a perfect 3-0 on the weekend as the No. 6 seed in the bracket. They will face Western Washington in the Super Regional.

For the Nighthawks, they’ll have to wait another year to try and advance to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history. They’ve been to the NCAA tournament four years in a row and in this spot last year.

The arrow is still trending up for the Northwest Nazarene softball program, who hosted a regional tournament for the first time in school history.

“We’re known for softball,” Wagner said. “You ask about the Nighthawks and everybody knows that our softball program is pretty darn good. I’m proud that we were in the national rankings every single week. That says a lot about our program.”