McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Two of the finest softball pitchers in NCAA Division III met head-to-head Friday afternoon in the opening game of the McMinnville Super Regional at Del Smith Stadium.
The battle between freshly crowned regional champions Linfield and Bethel remained a scoreless stalemate until the bottom of the fourth, when
Katie Phillips delivered a towering homer over the left-field fence. That was all the scoring the Wildcats would need to secure the 1-0 victory over the Royals.
The best-of-three Super Regional continues Saturday with Game 2 starting at 1 p.m. A deciding third game, if necessary, would follow at 3:30.
The pitching matchup of Linfield University's
Tayah Kelley and Bethel University's Kayla Simacek provided the greatest intrigue coming into the first meeting between the two successful programs. The two aces didn't disappoint. Kelley and Simacek, both probable 2023 All-Americans, combined for 13 strikeouts while limiting opposing hitters to just four hits.
Linfield improved to 45-4 and moved within one win of advancing to the NCAA Finals for the seventh time in program history.
The champions of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Bethel saw its school-record 26-game winning streak snapped. The Royals fell to 36-4.
Kelley (32-1) limited the Royals to just one hit, a two-out single by Izzy Wilhelm in the second inning.
Simacek (34-4) managed six strikeouts while holding Linfield to three hits and no walks.
Linfield twice put runners in scoring position in the first and third innings, but each time Simacek and the Royals kept the Wildcats off the scoreboard.
Bethel's best scoring opportunity came in the third. After Cortney Hokanson drew a walk off of Kelley and pinch runner Maddi O'Connor stole second base then advanced to third on a throwing error. But Kelley calmly struck out Lexi DeBace looking to end the threat.
Kaili Saathoff and
Cydney Hess accounted for the Wildcats' other two hits. Phillips' game-clinching homer was her fifth of the season and 29th of her career.
