McMINNVILLE, Ore. –
Claire Seats pounded four hits, including the winning knock in Game 1, and pitchers
Tayah Kelley and
Tyler Warden earned pitching victories, leading the Linfield Wildcats to a Northwest Conference doubleheader sweep of the Lewis & Clark Pioneers Sunday at Del Smith Stadium. Linfield rallied from behind to take the opener 4-3 before rolling to an impressive 9-1 triumph in the nightcap.
The 12th-ranked Wildcats raised their season record to 6-2 and 2-0 in the NWC. Lewis & Clark dipped to 6-4 and 0-2 in conference play.
GAME 1: Linfield 4, Lewis & Clark 3
Claire Seats' bases-loaded single rallied Linfield from a seventh-inning deficit, propelling the Wildcats to a hard-fought in their home opener.
Linfield threatened in the third inning but came away empty handed. The Wildcats loaded the bases for leadoff hitter
Baily Paul, but her line drive off a full-count pitch went straight into the glove of Pioneers second baseman Emily Patton.
Lewis & Clark broke the ice in the fifth inning when Riley Anderson blasted a solo home run over the left-field wall. Sam Gildersleeve then made it 2-0 in favor of the visitors, hitting a virtual carbon-copy homer to left field.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Wildcats loaded the bases on Pioneers ace Alyssa Abe with one out. Wildcats freshman
Cydney Hess delivered a full-count, two-run single, plating two runs to even the score at 2.
Patton tapped an RBI single to right field to put the Pioneers back in front, 3-2, in the top of the sixth.
In Linfield's half of the seventh inning,
Kaili Saathoff singled,
Katie Phillips reached base on an error and Hess with another single. That set the stage for Seats, whose long ball to left field allowed Phillips to plate the winning run.
Linfield totaled nine hits and Lewis & Clark had six. Saathoff, Hess and Seats each had two hits for the 'Cats.
Wildcats starter
Tayah Kelley improved to 4-0. She struck out nine batters without yielding a single walk.
Abe lasted five innings, giving up five hits and five walks, before making way for reliever Charlize Pope. She faced nine batters, giving up four hits, including the game-winner, to fall to 2-2 for the season.
Anderson led Lewis & Clark with two hits, including her fifth home run of the season.
GAME 2: Linfield 9, Lewis & Clark 1, 5 innings
Six runs in the first inning and three more in the third was all the Wildcats needed to win a run-rule shortened nightcap.
The game included a 75-minute rain delay.
Seats went 2 for 3 and scored twice, and
Ashley Sutton and Johns also contributed a pair of hits to lead a 10-hit Linfield attack.
Tyler Warden picked up the victory in the circle, giving up four hits and one walk across four innings with one strikeout.
Hailey Wadsworth pitched the fifth inning, striking out two batters and allowing one walk to close the game out.
Linfield wasted little time in loading the bases in the first inning. Seats then lofted a two-run single to right-center field, pushing two runs across the plate.
Moments later,
Ashley Sutton drove in two runs with a single to right field. A
Kamryn Mobley single drove home two more runs, pushing the Linfield advantage to 6-0 before the third out had been recorded.
In the third inning, relief pitcher Maggie O'Leary surrendered a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch plus a walk, adding two runs to the Wildcats' total. Saathoff then launched a sacrifice fly to left field, enabling
Katrina Johns to score from thirds base.
L&C scored its lone run on a sacrifice in the fifth inning by Patton.
Mari Alvarez notched a pair of hits for the Pioneers. L&C starter Tallulah Sickles was saddled with the loss, lasting all of 2/3 of an inning in the circle.
AHEAD
The Wildcats and Pioneers resume their four-game series Monday at 3 p.m. at Del Smith Stadium. On Wednesday, Linfield faces Willamette in a rescheduled NWC doubleheader, also on the Wildcats' home diamond.
