BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Needing a win to stave off elimination and continue its quest for a national championship, the Linfield Wildcats went to their signature play – the home run – to pound Redlands 9-1 in six innings Saturday at the NCAA Division III Championship Finals on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University.
In a matchup of two longtime West Coast rivals at IWU's Inspiration Field, the Wildcats blasted four home runs, including the team's 104th homer of the season to break a program and NCAA Division III single-season record of 103 set by Linfield's 2011 national championship squad.
Linfield (45-6) moves on to play Trine (43-5) Sunday at 1:30 p.m. CDT / 11:30 a.m. PDT. The Wildcats must defeat the Thunder twice on Sunday in order to advance to Tuesday's best-of-three national championship series versus either Virginia Wesleyan or Randolph-Macon.
Against Redlands on Saturday, Linfield racked up 13 hits, plating single runs in the first and third innings before erupting for four runs in the fourth and two more in the fifth to put the game out of reach.
Meara Sain drilled her sixth home run of the season in the second inning, putting Linfield in front 2-0, before the Wildcats really got cooking in the fourth.
Cydney Hess singled to lead off the frame before
Jacey Leyvas punched her 16th roundtrip ticket of the season.
Ashlyn Aven followed with a solo home run missile that careened off the towering scoreboard in left field, tying the national record of 103 with the very next at-bat and chasing Bulldogs starter Kaylen Galaviz from the game in favor of Katlyn Gandara. The 'Cats added an unearned run shortly after when
Brynn Nelson reached base on an error, allowing
Tiani Wayton to score and putting Linfield in front 6-0.
The crushing blow for the Bulldogs came in the fifth. Aven doubled and
Ashley Sutton stepped to the plate with two outs. The senior catcher then launched a no-doubt-about-it home run over the left-field wall, breaking the national home run record and touching off a wild celebration at home plate.
Redlands notched its lone run in the bottom of the fifth, the result of a Wildcats' fielding error that extended the game an additional inning. Wayton's RBI single in the sixth scored Hess, giving Linfield the eight-run cushion necessary to end the game by the eight-run rule.
Aven went 3 for 4 in the game while Wayton, Sain and
Kaili Saathoff all had two hits to lead the 'Cats offensively.
Tyler McNeley pitched a three-hit, complete-game victory, earning her 32nd win of the season. The sophomore righthander, now 32-3, struck out one Bulldog and walked one other.
Galaviz (5-1) suffered her first defeat in the circle for Redlands, giving up five hits and four earned runs over the opening three innings.
Linfield improved its win-loss record against Redlands in the NCAA playoffs to 11-4.
