McMINNVILLE, Ore. – With wins Friday over Pacific Lutheran and George Fox, the Linfield Wildcats moved into prime position to claim the Northwest Conference Tournament championship for the 12th time since the tournament's inception in 2011.
Linfield opened the four-team, double-elimination tournament with a 9-1 thumping of PLU and finished up with a 6-0 blanking of Yamhill County rival George Fox.
The Wildcats (37-5) next face either George Fox or Lewis & Clark on Mother's Day for the tournament title. Those two teams are set to play in an elimination game Sunday at 10 a.m. with the winner needing to defeat Linfield twice in order to claim the NWC's automatic berth to the NCAA Division III regional playoffs. The start time for all three games has been moved ahead one hour due the forecast of wet weather arriving Sunday afternoon.
Linfield 6, George Fox 0
Home runs by
Meara Sain and
Claire Seats, combined with a four-hit shutout pitching performance, propelled the Wildcats to the Sunday's championship game.
A three-run first inning, highlighted by RBIs from
Brynn Nelson, Seats and
Cydney Hess gave Linfield the early momentum.
Seats blasted her 19th home run of the season in the third inning, moving past Linfield Hall of Famer Emilee Lepp to No. 2 on Linfield's career RBI list.
The fourth inning saw Sain lace her fourth of the season over the right-field wall, touching off more Linfield fireworks. The two-run shot put Linfield in front 6-0.
McNeley (24-2) fanned five Bruins and walked two while limiting the Bruins to four hits.
Nicole Lendendecker (11-5) took the loss for George Fox. She gave up all seven hits to the Wildcats in four innings of action, walking one and logging just a single strikeout.
Linfield 9, Pacific Lutheran 1, 6 innings
Nelson went 4 for 4 at the plate, including a walkoff home run in the sixth inning, putting the exclamation point on the Wildcats' 6-1 victory over PLU in the opening game of the NWC Tournament.
Nelson's seventh home run of 2025 helped pace an 11-hit Linfield effort in the first of four games Friday.
Linfield rung up four runs in the first inning on PLU ace Paige Wilson.
Claire Seats drove in the game's first run with a single through the infield that enabled
Kaili Saathoff to score.
Cydney Hess added a two-run singled down the left-field line minutes later. Hess later scored when center fielder Jaycie Simpliciano mishandled what appeared to be routine fly ball, putting Linfield in front 4-0 with the game just 15 minutes old.
Hess doubled to lead off the third inning and
Jacey Leyvas followed on the ensuing at-bat with her 13th home run of the season to make the score 6-0.
In the PLU fifth inning, Sarae singled, advanced to second by Zoe Smithson's single, then successfully stole home for the Lutes' only run of the contest.
With two runners on base in the sixth, Nelson stepped to the plate and smacked the 34th homer of her career over the left-field wall, touching off a celebration at home plate and ending the game by virtue of the eight-run rule.
Hess and Saathoff each went 2 for 3 and scored two runs.
Wildcats pitcher
Tyler McNeley earned the win, pitching all six innings. She struck out four Lutes and walked one while limiting the Lutes to six hits.
Sarae was the only PLU player with more than one hit.
