ARCATA — No. 6 seed Western Oregon made short work of defeating No. 3 seed Cal State Monterey Bay, 9-1, in the opening game of the NCAA Division II West Region Softball Championships on Wednesday.

The mercy-rule shortened win advances the Wolves into Thursday's winner's bracket game against either No. 2 Cal State Stanislaus or No. 7 Seattle University. Cal State Monterey Bay remains alive in the double elmination format, and will play again Thursday at 9 a.m., with the loser of that game heading home.

On Wednesday, the Wolves broke through in the top of the second inning with a big blow off the bat of Jessica Hallmark. After two singles and a hit batsman filled the bases with two outs, Hallmark launched a Jessica Boyle pitch over the 220-foot center field fence for a 4-0 Western Oregon lead.

Western Oregon struck for three more runs in the fourth, the first two coming in when Tyler Sutherland singled and Hallmark drove another shot over the fence. Jamie Becker followed with a single and Amanda Fleer doubled her home to give the Wolves a 7-0 advantage.

Another home run - this one a two-run shot off the bat of Tyler Sutherland - moved the Wolves up 9-0. Cal State Monterey Bay countered with a single run in the bottom of the fifth, not enough to cut the margin and prolong the game.

Western Oregon pounded out 13 hits, five of them for extra bases, saddling Boyle with the loss. Katie Fleer pitched the complete-game victory for WOU, giving up four hits, striking out six and walking none to improve her record to 19-5 on the season.

As a team, Western Oregon improved to 31-16 overall while Cal State Monterey Bay dropped to 35-25.

Western Oregon 9, Cal State Monterey Bay 1

Score by Innings               R  H  E
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Western Oregon...... 040 32 -  9 13  0
CSU Monterey Bay.... 000 01 -  1  4  0
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LOB - WOU 7; CSUMB 3. 2B - Fleer,A.; Young; ARTOFF. HR - Sutherland;
Hallmark 2. HBP - Sutherland; Maglasang. SH - Young. SB - Maglasang; LOPEZ.
Win - Fleer,K. (19-5).  Loss - BOYLE (7-9).  Save - None.
HBP - by CABRAL (Sutherland); by BOYLE (Maglasang).