McMINNVILLE, Ore. – After dropping both ends of Saturday's doubleheader, Linfield exploded for six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning and rode a pair of home runs from
Luke Porter to a 12-5 win over Whitworth on Sunday afternoon at Roy Helser Field.
Porter crushed two homers and drove in six runs, capping off his dominant day with a grand slam in the eighth that helped the Wildcats blow the game open after Whitworth rallied to close the gap. His first blast came in the seventh, a two-run shot to left-center that put the Wildcats up 6-1.
The victory snapped Linfield's two-game skid and salvaged the final game of the Northwest Conference series, improving the Wildcats to 16-13 overall and 7-8 in conference play.
It was a defensive battle early, with both teams' pitching staffs looking impressive through the first four innings. The Wildcats opened the scoring in the third when
Rylan Gullard bunted for a single and eventually scored on a
Trent Wainfeld RBI single. Whitworth responded in the fifth with an RBI single from Junior Garcia, but Linfield answered immediately in the bottom half when Gullard was hit by a pitch and
Nick Holm followed with a two-run homer to left field.
Gullard was productive throughout the contest, reaching base three times and driving in a run on a double in the sixth. Wainfeld finished 3-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base, while
Matthew Lewis also collected two hits and scored one time.
Starting pitcher
Matthew Tacheny earned his first win of the season, scattering three hits and one earned run over five innings. Relievers
Zach Johnson and
Colton Ouellette held the lead despite some late pressure from Whitworth, which plated four unearned runs in the eighth to cut Linfield's lead to one.
But Linfield's offense responded with its biggest inning of the day. After a bunt and an error allowed two runs to score, Porter stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and crushed the ball over the right-center wall to put the game out of reach.
Holm added two RBI and
Elijah Maris had a pair of singles, helping the Wildcats tally 14 hits in total.
NEXT
Linfield prepares for a nonconference matchup with Willamette on Wednesday night before resuming conference play on Friday with a doubleheader at Whitman.
