LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Looking to regain its mojo after starting the season with a loss and a tie, the Linfield Wildcats did just that and more during an impressive doubleheader sweep of the Occidental Tigers Sunday at Bell Softball Field.
The fourth-ranked Wildcats pounded the host Tigers 10-1 in the opener, then followed through with an 18-3 thumping in the second game, halted after five innings by the eight-run rule.
Darian Stedman went 6 for 8 at the plate with four doubles, two home runs and eight RBI.
Paige Smotherman went 4 for 5 with a home run, and
Makenna Clizer was 4 for 7 with a home run and five RBI.
Linfield pounded 30 hits in the two-game set, including 20 in the nightcap.
GAME 1: Linfield 10, Occidental 1
Stedman, Smotherman and Clizer were a three-person wrecking crew, all hitting home runs to power the Wildcats to their first win of the season.
Stedman went 3 for 5 with a home run while adding a pair of doubles and three RBI. Linfield produced 10 hits in game.
Smotherman contributed a pair of hits, drove in two runs and scored a run. Clizer went 2 for 4 and drove in three runs, including round-trip blast in the seventh that stretched the Linfield lead to 10-1.
Shelby Saylors (1-1) struck out seven Tigers on the way to a four-hit pitching victory. The senior allowed just one walk in six innings before turning the game over to sophomore
Maddy Podnar, who held the Tigers without a hit in the seventh.
Occidental notched its only run of the game in the fourth when Bailey Stevens hit a home run to left field.
GAME 2: Linfield 18, Occidental 3
Linfield jumped on Occidental starter Madison Romero for seven runs in the first inning. Clizer, Stedman,
Kamryn Apling and
Maddy Colson all had RBIs in the inning.
The Wildcats put up multiple runs in the next three innings, scoring twice in the second, six times in the third before inflicting more damage with three additional runs in the fourth.
Stedman launched her second home run of the day and 15th of her career in the third inning, a three-run blast that scored Clizer and
Kelsey Wilkinson.
Stedman went 3 for 3 with five RBI. Colson, Clizer, Smotherman,
Kamryn Apling,
Katie Phillips and
Brook Herrington all logged two hits in the contest. Phillips and Clizer each scored three runs.
Wildcats starter
Tanna Benson held the Tigers to five hits over four innings on the way to earning her second career pitching victory.
Eliza Rossman closed out Occidental in the fifth with a pair of strikeouts.
Next
Linfield makes it home debut Saturday at Del Smith Stadium when the Wildcats host the Puget Sound Loggers for a doubleheader starting at noon. The teams meet again Sunday in another twinbill, also beginning at noon.
