The playoff fate of the Simon Fraser University Clan women’s softball team will be decided in a pair of doubleheaders on the road this weekend.
The Clan are tied with Western Oregon for fifth place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and the two teams play each other Saturday in Monmouth, Or. Both the Clan and the Wolves have 12 wins and 12 losses in conference play. The top four teams advance to the conference playoffs that begin May 3 in Portland.
SFU then closes out its regular season schedule on Sunday against Concordia in Portland.
The Clan stayed in the playoff hunt after splitting doubleheaders last weekend.
Port Coquitlam pitcher Alia Stachoski helped preserve a 10-6 win for the Clan in the second game of their doubleheader against Saint Martin’s last Sunday in Lacy, Wash.
Stachoski surrendered just two hits and a walk after relieving starter Jessica Tate in the bottom of the fifth inning with the Clan nursing a 6-5 lead.
Earlier, in Sunday’s first game, Stachoski gave up 11 hits and all seven runs as the Saints beat the Clan 7-2. The loss dropped her record to 10 wins and an equal number of losses.
Stachoski earned her tenth win of the season the day before in Ellensburg, Wash., when she struck out five batters and surrendered only one run to the Central Washington Wildcats while her teammates scored seven times. That victory was a bit of payback for the 13-0 drubbing the Clan received in the day’s first game.
• On Monday, longtime Clan softball coach Mike Renney announced his retirement at the end of the season. The team’s 10-6 win over Saint Martin’s University the day before was his 1,000th game since he took over as SFU’s softball program in 1994.
