LA VERNE, Calif. --- Linfield baseball (4-0) opened the California road trip with a 9-7 win over the La Verne Leopards (0-2), thanks to two ninth-inning home runs from Wyatt Hurley and Wyatt McClory.
 
Matthew Tacheny settled in on the mound, sitting down three Leopards to begin the game. Cole Snidow came around to score in the second inning, taking a lead-off walk, as Nick Holm's sacrifice fly put Linfield up 1-0. 
 
Cole Hubka opened the third with a single to right, later loading the bases with no outs after a hit by pitch and Jaxson Kister reaching on an error. Cole Snidow drove in Hubka with a sacrifice fly, but that was all the 'Cats could make of the inning. 
 
After navigating two runners in scoring position in the second, Tacheny allowed one run in the third thanks to a lead-off double that came around to score on a sacrifice fly, 2-1 Linfield through three.
 
In the fifth, a hit by pitch and walk helped plate two on a Rylan Gulard single to short. The lead was extended an inning later in part to yet another hit by pitch, Ely Kennel doubled and Jaxson Kister hit a two-run home run, making it 6-1 Wildcats.
 
La Verne pounced in the seventh, knocking Tacheny out early in the inning, scoring six runs to give the Leopards their first lead of the game at 7-6. Kister responded with a sac-fly in the eighth, tying the game up going into the ninth.
 
Wyatt McClory and Wyatt Hurley hit back-to-back jacks to begin the ninth to regain a 9-7 lead and put the Leopards on their final three outs. Casey Struckmeier slammed the door shut with three fly outs, giving the 'Cats a 9-7 win.
 
Both Wyatt's (McClory and Hurley) matched Hubka for two hits each, while Kister's two-run shot led the team with three runs batted in. Tacheny's six and a-third innings only cost him 92 pitches, but Hampson earned the win after one a two-thirds and Struckmeier carded the save. 
 
The Wildcats take on the Leopards twice tomorrow, with game one set to start at 11 a.m.
 
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