McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Linfield's
Jacey Leyvas blasted three home runs against her hometown college team and the No. 1-ranked Wildcats rebounded emphatically from their first loss for the season, moving within one win of advancing to next week's NCAA Division III Super Regionals.
Held to three hits in a 4-2 Game 1 loss, the Wildcats exploded for 15 hits and drew 10 walks to pummel the Bulldogs 17-7 in a run-rule shortened Game 2 on the second day of action of the NCAA McMinnville Regional Friday afternoon at Del Smith Stadium.
With the bounce-back victory, Linfield (45-1) inched closer to securing its sixth NCAA regional championship in 10 years. Redlands (33-13) must defeat Linfield twice on Saturday in order to claim the regional crown.
The winner of the McMinnville Regional moves on to the two-team, best-of-3 Super Regional, Thursday and Friday, May 23-24, at eight campus sites. The NCAA is expected to finalize regional host sites Sunday.
GAME 1: Redlands 4, Linfield 2
Bulldogs freshman pitcher Paige Ellinger held Linfield to a season-low three hits – two of them home run blasts by Leyvas – to hand the Wildcats their first defeat of the 2024 season.
Ellinger (10-4) went the distance in the circle. She walked four and struck out just one Wildcat, yet flustered Linfield hitters throughout with 15 flyouts while stranding six Wildcat runners.
Paige Messenlehner put the Bulldogs on the scoreboard in the first inning with a line-drive double to center field that scored leadoff hitter Natalie Horton from second base.
Katlyn Gandara drew a two-out walk in the third inning and Messenlehner followed with a single to left field. Kassidy Long then lofted a ball deep to the corner in left field, reaching base on an error and scoring two unearned runs. Leila Jackson made it 4-0 with a double to left, scoring pinch runner Natalie Lopez.
With one out in the fourth, Leyvas blasted a towering home run off the pitch of Ellinger, cutting the deficit to 4-1.
Linfield's best opportunity for a comeback came in the fifth.
Tiani Wayton reached base on an error then scooted to second on a bad throw to first base. With runners at first and third, Elliger got
Claire Seats to pop out into the glove of Messenlehner in right field, halting the potential rally.
Leyvas clubbed her second homer of the afternoon and ninth of the season to lead off the sixth, pulling the 'Cats to within two runs, 4-2. But that was as close as Linfield would come to avoiding the upset.
Kaili Saathoff accounted for Linfield's only other hit, a bunt single to open the game.
Though she allowed just a single earned run, Wildcats ace
Tayah Kelley absorbed her first pitching loss of the season to fall to 27-1. The two-time All-American struck out eight Bulldogs and walked two, yielding six hits.
GAME 2: Linfield 17, Redlands 4, 5 innings
For the third time in three games of the series, the Bulldogs snatched the early advantage. Redlands touched up Wildcats starter
Tyler McNeley for four hits in the opening frame, including an RBI double to Kassidy Long that scored Gandara from second base.
Linfield rung seven hits and five runs in the bottom of the first. Saathoff led off the Linfield order with a standup triple before Hess drove her home with a single to center field. Moments later, Seats drilled a double to the right-field wall, putting the Wildcats in front 2-1. Leyvas stepped to the plate, hammering her third home run of the day to straightaway center field. Wayton zipped an RBI double to stretch the Linfield lead to 5-1.
A sacrifice RBI to left field by Horton allowed Jenay Scott to score, and Gandara and Brooklyn Bard followed with run-scoring singles to the outfield, pulling the Bulldogs to within one run, 5-4.
The Wildcats loaded the bases with one out in the second, and cashed in some timely hitting plus a fielding error to push two more runners home to move in front 7-4.
Brynn Nelson, Linfield's leading hitter coming into the tournament, launched her 12th home run of the season in the third inning, giving the Wildcats a four-run cushion.
The fourth inning turned into a nightmare for the Bulldogs, starting with Seats' sacrifice RBI to score Wayton from third. Reliever Brianna Garcia then issued a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch to send Seats across home plate, and
Ashlyn Aven dropped a double into left field to score another run. Linfield added five more runs, including RBIs from Wayton, Saathoff and Hess, pushing the score to 17-4.
The Bulldogs added three inconsequential runs in the fifth to round out the scoring.
After giving up nine hits to the Bulldogs in just two innings, McNeley turned the game over to Kelley, who pitched the next two innings. McNeley re-entered the contest to finish what she started, earning her 18th win of the season against no losses.
The final score could have been worse. Three times the Wildcats loaded the bases with two outs, only to strand all three runners each time.
Redlands finished with 12 hits but was only able to convert that total into seven runs.
