McMINNVILLE, Ore. - Linfield separated itself from Pacific Lutheran in the Northwest Conference softball race on Saturday with 8-6 and 5-2 wins at Del Smith Stadium.
With the wins, the Wildcats improve to 22-5 overall and 14-2 in the conference, good for first place, four games ahead of the Lutes. Pacific Lutheran is now 17-11 overall and 10-6 in the NWC.
Game One - Linfield 8, PLU 6
After both teams scored twice in the first inning, Linfield scored five times in the bottom of the second inning to build a 7-2 lead that it would not give up.
The Lutes opened the scoring in the first on Amanda Hall's two-run homer, only to see the Wildcats come back with two runs on four hits against PLU starting pitcher Kelsey Robinson.
In the bottom of the second, a leadoff single brought about a pitching change, but the Wildcats got to reliever Leah Butters. Of the five runs scoring in the frame, four were unearned after a two-out error. Lisa Yamamoto hit a two-run home run to highlight the outburst.
PLU got two runs back in the top of the third on RBI base hits by Katie Lowery and Robinson, only to see Linfield add a tally in the fifth to make the score 8-4. The Lutes scored a run in the sixth on a RBI single by Montessa Califano and in the seventh on Lindsey Matsunaga's ground out, but that was it.
Linfield collected a total of 17 hits in the game, including a 4-for-4 effort from Yamamoto. Robinson, who re-entered the game in the circle, went five innings and suffered the loss.
The Lutes had nine hits, led by Califano and Lowery with two each.
Game Two - Linfield 5, PLU 2
The Wildcats scored a run in the first and four more in the fourth, while starting pitcher Shelby VandeBergh was keeping the Lutes off of the scoreboard through her six innings of work.
Ashley Garcia had a run-scoring single in the first, and the big blows in the fourth inning were a two-run double by McKenna Spieth and a two-run homer by Karleigh Prestianni.
PLU had a great scoring opportunity against VandeBerghe in the first inning, but a bases-loaded pop up ended the threat. VandeBerge then retired the Lutes in order in the second, third and fourth innings. Another Lutes threat came up empty as two runners were left on base in the fifth.
After another 1-2-3 inning from VandeBerge in the sixth, Pacific Lutheran finally got to relief pitcher Maddy Dunn for its two runs in the top of the seventh on a run-scoring double by Haley Harshaw and a RBI single by Califano.
Califano had three of Pacific Lutheran's six hits in the game. Kaaren Hatlen took the loss, her fifth against six wins, allowing 10 hits while walking one and striking out one.
PLU returns to conference action at 3 p.m. Tuesday when it hosts Puget Sound in a doubleheader.
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