NEWBERG, Ore. – Northwest Conference softball frontrunners Linfield and George Fox took turns knocking each other off Saturday at Morse Field, where the Wildcats scratched out a 5-3 victory in the opener before the Bruins answered with a resounding 9-3 win in the nightcap.
Linfield, ranked No. 6 in the most recent NFCA Top 25 poll, improved its season record to 17-3, 9-1 in conference play. George Fox, the 2021 NWC champion, moved to 14-6 overall and 9-3 in the NWC.
GAME 1: Linfield 5, George Fox 3
The game pitted the NWC's top two pitchers, matching Linfield's
Tayah Kelley against George Fox's Ashley Davis.
Kelley (11-0) held the Bruins to three hits while striking out 11. Davis (10-2), last season's NWC Pitcher of the Year, struck out three Wildcats but yielded seven hits, including a game-winning home run to
Emma Podliska in the fifth inning.
Inspired by
Baily Paul's leadoff triple in the game's first at-bat, Linfield bolted to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. George Fox pulled even in the second inning after Katie Ladd reach base on an error, allowing two runs to score.
Linfield cashed in on a GFU fielding error in the fifth when
Kaili Saathoff led off the inning with a double and eventually scored on an error by Bruins first baseman Sharon Tomei. Podliska followed with her first home run of the year, a solo shot to left field that made the score 4-2.
The Bruins pulled to within one run in the bottom of the inning on Tomei's RBI single to left-center field, but the 'Cats added an insurance run in the sixth on a RBI double from
Brynn Nelson that scored
Kamryn Mobley.
Paul led Linfield offensively with a pair of hits. Mobley also added a base hit.
Tomei, Allisa Yabumoto and Emma Classen accounted for the Bruins' three hits in the game.
GAME 2: George Fox 9, Linfield 3
Kimberly Pulido doubled and hit her second home run of the season, part of a 4-for-4 plate by the young Bruin. Sydney Sandifer and Tomei also added two hits each as GFU piled up nine hits on Linfield pitchers
Tyler Warden,
Jordan Bennett and
Hailey Wadsworth.
Warden (3-1) was tagged with the loss. The junior righthander lasted three innings, giving up five hits, four runs and three walks before turning the game over to Bennett. Wadsworth closed the game, striking out four over the final three innings.
Linfield piled up eight hits on Bruins pitcher Elise Wilkinson (4-3) but it produced just three runs.
The Wildcats took a 2-0 advantage in the first inning but the Bruins rallied with three runs in the second to take the upper hand. Pulido's solo home run in the third pushed the host's lead to 4-2 and the Bruins never looked back after that.
Podliska led the Wildcats with two base hits. Mobley drove two of Linfield's three runs. Saathoff and
Abi Proffitt both drilled doubles in the game, though neither led to a score.
NEXT
The Wildcats and Bruins square off in another doubleheader Sunday at Morse Field. First pitch is set for 11 a.m.
