SALEM, Ore. – Linfield freshmen Katie Phillips and Abi Proffitt combined for eight hits, including five doubles and a home run, to power 15th-ranked Linfield past Willamette 12-1 and 8-0 in a pair of Northwest Conference contests Sunday at the WU Softball Field. Both games were halted after five innings of play by the eight-run rule.
 
Hitting 11 doubles and three home runs over 10 innings of action, Linfield (22-4-1, 15-1 NWC) completed its four-game sweep of Willamette (3-24, 2-14 NWC) while maintaining a half-game advantage over Whitworth in the chase for the 2019 NWC championship. The two conference leaders square off this coming Saturday and Sunday in a four-game set at McMinnville's Del Smith Stadium.
 
Phillips went 5 for 7 on the day. She smacked two doubles and hit her sixth home run of the season in Game 2. Proffitt clubbed three doubles in her five trips to the plate.
 
GAME 1: Linfield 12, Willamette 1, 5 innings
A home run by Paige Smotherman, her seventh of the season and fifh of the week, punctuated a seven-run third inning for the Wildcats, who left no doubt as to the game's outcome in the early going.
 
Trailing 8-0, Willamette scored its only run in the bottom of the third inning when Payten Healy homered to center field.
 
Linfield padded the final score with four runs in the fifth inning, a spree that featured a three-run homer by Darian Stedman, her seventh, and an RBI double from Phillips.
 
Shelby Saylors pitched her 11th victory of the season and second of the weekend. The senior's two wins over Willamette established a new Linfield record for complete games pitched with 60, surpassing the long-standing mark of 58 held by Karissa Way (1997-2000).
 
GAME 2: Linfield 8, Willamette 0, 5 innings
Linfield's potent batting order pounded five doubles on WU pitchers Morgan Penn and Bailey Hillmick. Phillips doubled and homered in the second inning to pace an 11-hit attack. Stedman, Proffitt, Makenna Clizer and Chelsea Horita also picked up extra-base hits in the game.
 
Tanna Benson (10-1) earned the pitching decision, striking out three and scattering three hits. Maddy Podnar closed out the final inning in relief, allowing no hits or walks.
 
Next
Linfield returns home to Del Smith Stadium for a highly anticipated battle with the Whitworth Pirates. Saturday's doubleheader is one of five home events that day that are part of Linfield's "Spring Block Party," which features outdoor food and drink concessions, live music and alumni gatherings.